Values Beyond Boundaries
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Authors Ike, Obiora F., 1956-
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Values Beyond Boundaries
Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance
Obiora F. Ike ii Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance
© Obiora F. Ike , 2016
ISBN: 978 – 978 – 53982 – 1 – 12
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owners.
Printed and bounded in Nigeria by BEW IT LTD 19 Ibiam Street, Uwani, Enugu. Tel.: 08038946169, 08180869775 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance iii
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: 1 The Value of Values
Chapter 2: 11 Ethics and Democracy
Chapter 3: 19 Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance for the Nigeria Ethics of Work in the Public and Civil Service
Chapter 4: 37 Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering Our Ultimate Destiny
Chapter 5: 47 Global Poverty and Global Health - From the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) To Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's)
Chapter 6: 57 The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Values as Ethical Values
Chapter 7: 69 Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethical and Religious Considerations
Chapter 8: 79 Philosophical Response to Socio-Political and Economic Challenges in Africa
Chapter 9: 87 Expectations on Social Infrastructures from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Year 2002 Budget
Chapter 10: 99 Training of SAOs and their Deputies on Aid Management and Coordination
iv Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance
Chapter 11: 107 Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy - The Case of Nigeria
Chapter 12: 121 Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response
Chapter 13: 139 Violence in Nigeria - An Overview
Chapter 14: 145 Regionalism, Ethnic Conflicts and Democracy in Africa
Chapter 15: 149 Religion and Politics - Perspectives of the Social Teaching of the Church: The Case of Nigeria
Chapter 16: 165 Righteousness in Governance
Chapter 17: 179 Grassroots Women Animation and Conscientization Towards Political Awareness and Democratic Behaviour and Action
Chapter 18: 183 Transformational Leadership and the Challenges of Governance in Enugu State
Chapter 19: 195 Everything has its Time; The State of the State
Chapter 20: 207 Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Educational Institutions in Nigeria
Chapter 21: 219 The Social, Political and Economic Situation of Nigeria: A Critical Survey
Chapter 22: 233 The Business of Business is Ethics The Value of Values 1
Chapter One
The Value of Values
1. Conceptual Definition of Values
The English word VALUE comes from the Latin root “ valere ” which means “to be of worth; to be strong, to stand for something’ . Value literally means “something that has a price, something precious, dear and worthwhile; something one is ready to suffer for and sacrifice, including readine ss to die for if necessary”.
In casual language, Values are understood as something that adds quality to human life. The dictionary gives further meaning about value as something of ‘relative worth, utility or importance; degree of excellence, something as a principle or quality intrinsically valuable’ .
Universally, values have come to be accepted as a “set of principles or standards of behavior regarded as desirable, important and held in high esteem by a particular society in which a person lives; and the failure to hold them results in blame, criticism or even outright condemnation” .
History records show that every human society hold certain traditions asculture and an accepted way of life, a practice and norm of behavior for the members of that particular society, held sacred and transmitted from generation to generation.
From the above, it could be said that without values, one would be floating like a piece of driftwood in the swirling waters of a river however exciting it may appear first. A life without proper values will become chaotic and disastrous. It will be like a boat without a rudder.
Of the various philosophical interpretations and hermeneutics around the subject, the following ideas retain place in virtually all cultures and societies when values are referred to namely:
• Values give meaning and strength to a person’s character and occupies a central place in one’s life; • Values reflect one’s personal attitudes and judgments, decisions and choices, behavior and relationships, dreams and visions;
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• Values influence the thoughts , feelings and actions of people; • Values guide persons to do the right things; • Values help human beings to act morally and be morally sound; • Values give direction and firmness in life and give meaning to actions; • Values give motivation for a person to live and act; • Values identify a person, giving him name, face and character.
To guide our life in the right path and to embellish our behavior with good qualities, we need values. A life without proper values will become chaotic and disastrous. It will be like a boat without rudder. Values and Ethics are inter-related and often used inter-changeably. Ethics which are founded on values are necessary codes of human conduct. Ethics promotes harmonious life of integrity. It is also a general framework within which harmonious societal development is facilitated. Ethics deals with the integrated development of human personality. It touches the human person, human dignitry and all the obligations that flow from the nature and dignity of human person in relation to oneself, others, community, society and the world. Ethics focuses the attention of people on the ultimate human goal which influences all good values to replace every evil value in the world.
From a global perspective, there is noticeable consensus and rejection of the world and its governance structures as it is currently experienced because many believe that it was meant to be different and much better. These worldwide challenges do not leave us in apathy or lethargy but challenge renewed, urgent and value-driven action to redeem humanity at this time.
Despite the many successes recorded against hunger, diseases and world poverty, the information in global connectivity and media communication, space travel and ability to feed over seven billion human beings daily with several technological achievements, there are other difficult challenges posed by wars and terror, a rise in global insecurity due to poverty and economic uncertainty; growing agitation for inclusion by many citizens leading to political turmoil and migrations in nations; the challenges and abuse of technology which today controls the human person and not the other way round; natural catastrophes and the climatic changes experienced in virtually all countries and continents due to the overuse of the earth’s resources.. It is not that these problems are new but they seem to have assumed greater proportions and increased in their intensity.
The Value of Values 3
The continuing disrespect for human life and the dignity of all persons and the seeming lack of Political Will and Value-Driven-Leadership to solve these problems pose urgent imperatives on the discipline of Ethics to call humanity to order. Like many have gradually realized, “ it is clear that the most important challenges humanity face are not simply political, economic or technical. They are rather Ethical, Moral and Spiritual. Our time and countries face fundamental questions of life and death’. In his recent address to the Pontifical academy for Life, Pope Francis characterizes these points with clear words:
“the study of the virtues in the ethics of life is a subject of academic interest which addresses an important message to contemporary culture: the good that man does is not the result of calculations or strategies, not is it the product of the genetic order or social conditionings, but it is the fruit of a well-disposed heart, of the free choice that tends to true good. Science and technology are not enough to do Good. Wisdom of the heart is necessary… ” (Cf. Zenit, Vatican News Agency, 3 rd March 2016,Vatican City).
Ancient African and Hebrew wisdom teach that “it is in the heart that both ‘Reason’ and ‘Will’ reside. The heart is the seat of decisions, of the way of thinking and acting. The heart, in sum, is the synthesis of humanity molded by the very hands of God” (Cf Genesis chapter 1;). The first nature to protect therefore so that it will bear fruitis our own humanity, so Pope Francis...
“We must give our humanity clean air of freedom and the vivifying water of truth; protect it from the poisons of egoism and life. Then on the terrain of our humanity, a great variety of virtues will be able to flower”.
2. The Value of Values
Human beings are described generally as social by their nature and desire to stay in society, not in isolation. Persons cannot grow or mature in isolation but need the influence of others to be fulfilled. As persons living in a society, human beings need to acquire certain values and manners which are essential for a respectable and successful life within that society and is generally accepted as norm for that social context. In simple language, values are ‘the rails that keep a train on track and help the train move smoothly, quickly and with direction ”.
4 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance
Values are often transmitted through education. Education in itself is a key component of knowledge and the communication of skills, attitudes, values and behavior patterns that are desirable in a person both as an individual and as a member of society. Thus through education, the society seeks to preserve and promote its values. Through value education, we develop the social, moral, aesthetic and spiritual sides of a person, which are often not highlighted in formal education. In many countries, the government provides education policies which guide teachers and institutions of learning towards communicating set knowledge and principles to the young. These are part of the educational curriculum of studies set as standards for all teaching institutions.
Human beings naturally strive for the Good and all people according to Aristotle “ desire what brings happiness ”. Experience teaches that the only way for a person to grow to maturity is for that person to get involved in action, while trying to develop a personal relationship with others. This is why society in itself sets specific values, considered good manners as standards for its members. It measures compliance to these standards as right conduct and acceptable. Those who comply are regarded and rewarded. Those who do not comply are treated with disdain, punishment, rejection or even rejected and labelled accordingly.
To guide our life in the right path and to embellish our behavior with good qualities, we need values. Hence it is essential that we take time to reflect on them, identify and clarify them, question, evaluate, confirm or change them, in order to live a happy, productive and worthwhile life. People have to be trined to take a definite stand against forces of inhumanity of our times. People have to cultivate an awareness of higher and transforming values of life, lest they settle down with a mediocre contribution to society.
All over the globe, there is seeming agreement by parents, teachers, psychologists, scientists, pastors, sociologists and anthropologists that the young and even the adults and elderly are confused about their values and the entire basis of the value system in itself. People are confronted daily with value conflicts and dilemmas and are at a loss at how to cope with all these. Many young people are looking for meaning in their life, alongside searching for models and guides in order to understand their place in it and which decisions of life to take. The dramatic and far-reaching socio-cultural and technological changes affecting many traditional and modern societies make them vulnerable. In the light of all these, it is but natural that people are confused about proper and sound values. The Value of Values 5
Many young people openly reject some of the traditional values and question dogmatic beliefs held sacred for centuries. Often it happens that people do not find replacements for the traditional values and hence a kind of vacuum is created in their life. This is not desirable because in the absence of values, they have no principle or foundation on the basis of which they can face life situations and make choices and decisions.
Generally, there is a breakdown of traditional values without replacements, lack of role models, conflicting ideologies and double standards. There are new questions, new challenges, much doubt and disbelief, illusions and discontent; dreams and disenchantments. Cases of corruption at all levels exist and the traditional sense of modesty, decorum and decency including guilt and shame seem to diminish. Dark realities of oppression, social injustice, neglect and poverty increase in nations and people are at a loss of what to do about this. There are scandalous inequalities in the distribution of material resources, power and responsibility. The political elite are too far away and high to understand or even tackle these problems.
Societies struggle with the diminishing role of the family and parental responsibility; the rapid and uncontrolled influence of the means of mass communication in private life without having any opportunity to withstand the aggression; the greater degree of freedom and multiple choices enjoyed often without control; and a permissive society which tolerates everything.
This is where value education sets in. It fulfils the primary purpose of the inculcation of value in the minds and characters of the beneficiaries. The concept of Value inculcation is a training to question, explore, clarify and understand our own values, beliefs, attitudes and customs. In inculcating values, all human faculties such as knowing (head); feeling (heart); and doing (hand) play a role. Not only should people be enabled to know the right and the good, but also to feel the appropriate emotions and exercise their will to do the right thing. In other words, knowledge, ideas and concepts that are known are accepted, personalized and lived in daily life with conviction and commitment. The objectives of value inculcation include the following:
• To clarify values and analyze problems • To analyze human development down the ages • To achieve an approach to life • To have concern for others
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• To be critical and develop a critical consciousness • To spell out good values and counter values • To achieve a humanistic attitude • To understand the relevance of ethical life
Through value education, we learn to sift, understand and finally decide for ourselves, the correct and noble values that should guide and shape us. Value education teaches us to preserve whatever is good and worthwhile, in what we have inherited from our culture. It helps us to accept and respect the attitude and behavior of those who differ from us. Value education does not mean value imposition or indoctrination. It is rather a help to develop proper values, attitudes, feelings, behavior patterns and moral character. It helps us to become fully human persons. Thus value education covers the entire domain of learning, developing rational thinking, educating the emotions and training the will – the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.
3. Sources of Values and Kinds of Values
Values have their sources through human traditions, history and myths associated with humans. The primary source of values comes from the family where parents, relations, elders, teachers, peers and friends play a vital role. Secondly, documented materials communicate value. These are found in visuals, religions, customs, traditions and nations. Thirdly, values are sourced from co-curricula activities where young people grow in experience include such activities as the Scouts, Guides, red cross, Field Trips, Social services, sports and games all of which provide opportunities for sharing, solidarity and common ideals of value communication.
Fourthly, values emanate the Constitutions of all countries where the values and fundamental principles of state Policies are enunciated. These Constitutions mention such ideas as Unity, Freedom, Brotherliness, pursuit of Justice, equality, tolerance, humanism, compassion and harmony. Finally, through the various religions and traditions, values are sourced. The many rich religions of the world, including the monotheistic and polytheistic ones, the codified and oral traditions such as the African traditional religions all contain rich sources of values which are necessary for Life. Most of the values of religions emphasize Life, the respect and protection of life and the sacredness of life.
The Value of Values 7
In describing the kinds of values that are universally considered basic and fundamentally acceptable, the following guideline assists the effort. There are broadly classified, four kinds of Values that fit into this category namely:
• Personal values : Such values that are desired and cherished by an individual, founded on personal faith and beliefs, irrespective of social relationships, and built on personal motivation and life’s targets. Some examples of personal values are ambition, cleanliness, contentment, courage, creativity, determination, diligence, dedication to labour, discernment, excellence, honesty, hope, maturity, punctuality, self- control, self-motivation, simplicity,
• Social values : These refer to those values which are oriented towards others. These values are practiced and cherished because they link two or more persons beyond the person alone and are always practiced in relation to pour neighbour, community, society nation and the world. Some examples of social values are accountability, brotherhood, concern for environment, courtesy, dialogue, dutifulness, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, gratitude, hospitality, justice, love, magnanimity, patience, repentance, responsibility, service, sharing, sportsmanship, sympathy, team spirit, tolerance;
• Moral and Spiritual values : Under this category are such values that are related to an individual’s character and personality conforming to what is right and virtuous. These values touch upon principles, duties, conduct and practice. Moral and spiritual values reveal a person’s self- control, self-purification and knowledge. Quite often, moral values depict a person’s spiritual convictions since morality and spirituality go hand in hand. Some examples of moral values are detachment, faith, loyalty, non- violence, obedience, prayer, purity, renunciation, truthfulness,
• Behavioural values : These refer to all good manners certified by society that are needed to make life joyous and successful. These are often called character like dressing, manner of speech, relationship with pothers, gentility, etc. These values include: uprightness of mind and
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moral goodness. Such values are practiced at home; at the school; aat college; in interaction with other students; on the play-field; on the streets; in writing letters; general etiquette; table manners; tact and delicacy; independence of character; personal habits; life’s experiences .
4. Application of Values for Life to SDG’s 2030 and the Globethics.net Agenda
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’S) replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’S) on 15 th September 2015 as World Leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York to adopt the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda comprises seventeen new Sustainable Goals, which guide policy and funding for the next fifteen years, beginning with a historic pledge to end poverty, everywhere and permanently.
The SDG’s applies to all countries, aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies, create better jobs and tackle the environmental challenges of our time on climate change. The SDG’s include the following:
1. End Poverty. 2. Zero hunger. 3. Good health and Well Being. 4. Quality Education. 5. Gender Equality. 6. Clean water and Sanitation. 7. Affordable and clean Energy. 8. Decent work and Economic Growth. 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. 10. Reduced inequalities. 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities. 12. Reasonable Consumption and Production. 13. Climate Action. 14. Life below Water. 15. Life on land. The Value of Values 9
16. Peace Justice and Strong Institutions. 17. Partnerships for the Goals.
The SDG’s are guided by indicators and factors with measurable mechanisms to ensure that they work and are realized. The aim is to improve on the limitations of the MDG’s and the hope for a world that resembles the realization of the kingdom of God here on earth, all in fifteen years.
It is important to mention that these SDG’s contain in themselves values for life. These values circle around Life, the quality of Life, protection and enhancement of life. They promote Life for humans, animals, flora and fauna. Thereby the SDG’s seek for a fundamental and robust indicator to achieve the greatest extent possible of the Goals.
The Globethics.net with its Agenda 2016 to 2020 sets out to pursue the realization of a global ethics program in a period of the fourth industrial revolution, namely, the digital revolution through its advantage of a visionary and ethical approach to values-driven leadership through programs and services that present itself universally through its on-line platform, as a best- in-class leading online ethics provider.
With its manifold publications, educational materials, online library, conferences, advocacy, interventions, partnerships and global presence through networking around the theme of Values, Ethics, people, Leadership, Education and Action, Globethics.net is set alongside the SDG’s to pursue Values for Life and achieve the ideals of these values through partnership and the drive for ethics in higher education amongst other interventions.
Our world does not lack for threats to human life. We watch with horror the deadly violence of terror, starvation, wars and innocent children dying from easily preventable diseases. Humanity faces a new and insidious mentality that denies the dignity of some vulnerable human lives and treats killings as a personal choice and social good. The eradication of poverty is supported by equal access to quality education and a fairer society so that
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everyone who receives education can have more options in their lives and fulfil their aspirations.
Universal access to education and a fair society are not about promoting economic growth. They are about ensuring human dignity. These challenges call upon our sense of ethical responsibility. It is this challenge that the SDG’s and the Globethics.net seek to confront in their interrelated networking through various levels of activities and services to Values for Life. There is no better alternative for a world for everybody, founded on Values and virtues that touch all cultures and peoples.
Ethics and Democracy 11
Chapter Two
Ethics and Democracy
Introduction With a variety of cultures, people, languages, systems and historical conditions in the study of the religions, society, life-styles and values in Africa, one is confronted by a bewildering number of various traditions and ethnic groups that the student is either tempted to concentrate on only one ethnic group in what we call particularistic, holistic study, or to generalize the African condition in a universalistic invention from elements in different systems, thus, creating a cosmology which presumes to belong to all Africans but actually belongs to none. This is the predicament which both the holistic, particularistic and general universalistic have for both of them. The consequence could lead to a false picture of Africa. The temptation remains a dilemma. A realistic approach is to see the ethnic group “as a category of interaction, and by using limited comparative analysis based on geographical contiguity and the evidence of oral history of the moment of ideas, peoples, institutions and the influence of personalities, to establish models, which are applicable to given cases.” 1 This is the option we shall attempt here focusing on various linguistic and tribal groups found in Africa.
The religious and moral systems of Africa constitute, each, their own organic universe, their own integrated microcosm . Each developed its own imagery, its own system of classifications and complementary oppositions. Although at a popular level, religion always provides an element of explanation, prediction and control, it would be quite wrong to see these religions as explanatory systems, let alone systems of comprehensive explanations. They offered their adherents a further and unifying dimension to life itself. There was scepticism as well as faith, but insofar as religious faith triumphed, the African believer discovered a meaning in his existence and was able to hold a balance between hope and despair 2, and we may add mystery and meaning, life and tragedy, joys and sorrows and achievements.
1 Aylword Shorter, Theology in Context/The language of an African Theology in Ordensnachrichten 19. Jhg., 1980 / Heft 6, pp. 466 ff. 2 Shorter, A. ibid.
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Truth is Life The Africa world-view generally and the Igbo culture of Nigeria in particular believe that truth exists. This truth is explained as life ‘ezi okwu bu ndu’. Life in its various dimensions and experiences. This simple definition of ‘ truth as life ’ that is, of human conscious living and existence within a particular geographical reality, historical necessity and physical environment explains why the Igbo chose not to define ‘ truth ’ in an abstract category but to explain truth as an experience of life. To be true is to be alive within the community of the living and the greatest value was the protection of this life. Inasmuch as life, which begins at birth, was experienced, the African described the experience of this life and its extremes as corresponding to truth, which alone was shared by the concrete human community.
The challenge of such a thought pattern to the various Western philosophical schools of idealism, rationalism, empiricism etc. is to position the life experience of Africans considered as truth vis-a-vis ‘the abstract theoretical and logically conceivable ’ notions of the definitions of ethics in the Western cultures by individual philosophers. Here lies a difference in the search for the foundation for ethics in universal categories vis-a-vis the concrete historical experience of life. Whereas truth and life were identical in the African world-view, the western thinker realized this thought in the famous Cartesian ‘ Cogito ergo sum’.
In reality, African cosmology accepts that ‘ truth imposes itself’ without much logic, speculation and rationalization. It is not an abstract doctrinal formulation, which induces conviction, or truth but a confrontation with perceived reality. The African point of view is that imagination, experience and reason are far from being opposed to one another. In the words of Pope Paul VI, “ The idea is perceived rather than analysed, believed rather than reflected on and is expressed in very different ways in African culture. ”3
This provides us with a convergence of probabilities that creates for us the certitude, which is our guide to life. African world-view centres around the human being, his life, his welfare, the welfare of his descendants, living, dead or unborn, communion with the ancestors who play a vital role in the life of the historically present community. Although today, many Africans are increasingly getting urbanized and Westernized, Christianized or Islamized, ancient traditions and customs still abound and have their influence and validity in people’s way of life, language, clothing, food, birth and initiations
3 Paul VI, Africa Terrarum, art. 8, ASS 59, 1967, p. 1079. Ethics and Democracy 13 rituals, marriage, music, trade, agriculture, family communion sharing and solidarity patterns, relationships, death, burial, religious beliefs, political structures, among many others.
Tradition Culture has been regarded as a people’s way of life . It is neither static nor permanent. Culture goes through the entire philosophy and outlook of a people. Certainly in many African societies, culture, law, religion and morality are not easily separated. Religion is a regular accompaniment; it is an extension of culture. A common culture binds people together and, therefore, characterizes them. This is the moment of tradition, for tradition is responsible for the continuity which one finds in any society. It also identifies the people of that society at their deepest levels.
Etymologically, the word tradition comes from two Latin words trans (across) and dare (to give). The two combine to give, ‘ tradere’ meaning to ‘give up’, ‘hand over’, ‘decline’, ‘transit’, ‘surrender’, ‘concise’. 4 The part of culture, which unites people and gives them a sense of continuity and identity is their tradition. It has endured the test of time and is passed down from one generation to another.
It is the traditional values and conventions which help to establish people’s cultural identity as Austrians, Americans, Swiss, Germans, Nigerians and, thus, effectively unites these societies.
Tradition fashions the bond between successive generations in a society. We received from the past our language, laws, symbols and all those ideas and feelings which we generally accepted unquestionably and provide our society with its characteristic cultural values. Even if members of a given society rarely stop to formulate and reflect to what they have taken over, they remain radically indebted to the past for the inherited values and expectations which give life its meaning and provide ideals to be striven for. Thus, one generation passes on to another norms, attitudes and behaviour patterns by which society has hitherto functioned and now seeks to perpetuate itself. 5
4 Lewis, C.T., A Latin Dictionary, London, 1969, pp 1883 – 4. 5 Collins, G.S. J., Fundamental Theology, Paulist Press, New York/Ramsey, 1981, p.193.
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Actually, African cosmology did not distinguish between religion and the secular society but created room for an interdependent world where;
“The secular is so interwoven with the sacred that one does not exclude the other, nor could one be conceived without the other thereby giving religion an anthropocentric outlook.” 6
In the words of Harvey Cox “To live here and now is the most important concern of African religious activities and beliefs. There is little, if any, concern with the distinctly spiritual welfare of men apart from his physical life. Even life hereafter is conceived in materialistic and physical terms. There is neither paradise to be hoped for nor hell to be feared hereafter ... there is no messianic hope or apocalyptic vision of God stepping in at some future moment to bring about a radical reversal of man’s normal life.” 7
Eugene Uzukwu, commenting on this interplay between the sacred and the secular in African cultures notes that there is;
“The connection of the seen to the unseen, the union of the dead with the living, the spirit with ordinary man, and the dependence of the earthly man who is seen on the spiritual which is unseen.” 8
We might summarize by saying that African religion did not seek to make its members holy, to purify them nor to encourage its members to seek a transcendental union with the Supreme Being or with any other deity. The religion does not seek the welfare of God or that of any spirit nor does it seek to love them, but rather to obey the laws they are believed to have laid down to serve human interest. Therefore, this world-view seeks to communicate with and influence this world of the supernatural practices which included rituals and rites, sacrifices, consultation of the oracles, and respect of the ‘ Omenala’ (the laws of the land).
6 Odoemena, A., African Traditional Religions Claim to Absolute Truth vis-a-vis its Tolerance Capability. A lecture delivered at ninth symposium of Theologie Interkulturel of the Johanne Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/M, from 21 – 23/11/1996. 7 Cox, H., African Religions and Philosophy, London, 1969, p.4 in Afolabi Ojo, Yoruba Culture, Ibadan, 1971, p.184. 8 Uzukwu, E., Igbo Spirituality through Igbo Prayers; in Bulletin of African Theology, Zaire, 1984, p.211. Ethics and Democracy 15
Family, the first School of Ethics and Morality in Africa In most African societies, every individual born is considered a member of a family and of a clan. Until this day, the family is accepted as the most basic social structure and the first home of morality and ethics. The family, whether monogamous or polygamous is united by a bond of togetherness and feeling of closeness. Outside the family, the individual member is lost. A member is only free within the family community and his ability to contribute to its vitality. According to Max Gluckmann,
“The ethical effect of such situation is that every action of a member of the family which departs from the norm influences many activities adversely. Each breach of the norms has a wide moral disturbance because many relationships are affected.” 9
The family, therefore, is considered as the training ground and the first authority that sees to it that the traditions of the tribe are kept. It is the pride of the elders if their children know and respect the traditions of the tribe, which affect life. Thus, any achievement of the child is attributed to good upbringing of the family .10
Community, Solidarity and Life as Basis for Ethics Because man lives and partially defines himself in terms of community, he is responsible to the community, which as well acknowledges the individual members. The sense of community and solidarity is so strong that a person regards oneself as truly human when he/she is in communion with others. According to J.S. Mbiti;
“A typical African believes and holds tenaciously to the principle that he/she, as an individual is, because they are, and since they are, therefore he/she is.” Continuing this thought he asserts, “Only in terms of other people does the individual become conscious of his/her own being, his/her own duties, his/her privileges and responsibilities towards himself/herself and towards other people. The individual can only say I am because we are and since we are therefore I am.” 11 This is a cardinal point in the understanding of the African view of man. This sense of community finds expression in the daily life style of people where loyalties of kinship, clanship, language, culture, politics, religion etc. converge. One might describe this sense of togetherness as; community
9 Gluckmann, M., Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Societies, London, 1965, p. 244. 10 Niba, M.S., The Bafut Concept of Traditions ... A philosophical Reflection, Bambui, 1984, p.30 (unpublished). 11 Mbiti, J.S., African Religions and Philosophy, Heinemann, London, 1975, pp 108 – 109.
16 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance sentiment not just neighbourhood as community. This principle of sense of togetherness extends to include both the temporal and spiritual sphere,
“Not only the living but also the living dead - the ancestors, the Supreme Being and the entire spirit world. There is no room for rugged individualism, as every person is related to the other making possible a deep common solidarity and loyalty. Even natural objects are seen as inter-related, as symbols of each other.” 12
Any young man who cuts off himself from the community in the African sense and becomes a person in what is more or less the Western sense, cuts off from life. He is no longer a person in the African sense. If he is to survive to some degree, he must quit the village and begin existence somewhere else, however, no matter how prosperous he becomes he is presumed to miss something in his personality. It is only by re-establishing the link with his kit and kin, which is actually part of him, that he can once more be a person, his full self.
A Shift from Religion to Ethics The absence of the clear division between the sacred and the secular, the profane and the spiritual, the theoretical and the practical, all these expressed the African difference to Western categories of thought which had clear lines distinguishing the temporal and the eternal, idealism and empiricism, rationalism and pragmatism. The Igbo and in fact various African societies viewed the historical human person as the being;
‘whose life in community expressed the truth and which truth was the basis for a good life.’
There hardly existed religious wars, ideological doctrines, formal prayers or missionary enterprise in African societies. It was on the level of ethics, therefore, of life lived and shared in community, that problems existed. One would summarize this view thus;
“Do not show me your religion show me your good deeds.”
The shift, thus, moved from philosophical speculation to experienced life; “That which promotes life is good and acceptable. That which destroys life is bad
12 Gaba Publications, Human Response to the Call of God, in Spearhead, 1979, no 58, p. 27. Ethics and Democracy 17 no matter for what reason except where such life so destroyed was for the survival of the community and often not a member of the community”.
This was acceptable in cases of inter-tribal wars. Culture rich in values is regarded higher than a society rich in material wealth. If human beings are victimized by an oppressive society, which leads to their death or dehumanization, there was every reason to question the validity of the act from the perspective of the victim. Values of ethics in Africa stressed, therefore, the protection of life, the enhancement of life, the survival of community, the protection of the family, respect for village authority, need for openness, loyalty and humanness in personal relationships. The visible world of human society is supported by the world of the ancestors, the living dead, who are the custodians of ethics and morality.
The specific African contribution, therefore, in the debate is to establish that ethics had its validity and foundation on the arena not of religion but rather the relationship between members of the community (the present, the dead and the unborn). This is the essence of corporate personality and, thus, the foundation for the respect for traditions, for justice and the laws of the land where ethics has its foundations.
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Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 19
Chapter TThreehree
Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance for the Nigeria Ethics of Work in the Public and Civil Service
“Though the Church’s first care must be for souls, how she can sanctify them and make them share in the gifts of heaven, with his live hood and education and his general welfare and prosperity.” 1
Introduction of the Problem as a Challenge on the Discipline of Theology This paper derives from a fundamental concern with the present state of affairs on the continent of Africa, politically, socially, economically and religiously. It takes Nigeria as an example, Igbo land in its strictest sense, only as a paradigm of that which happens or can happen elsewhere. As is largely known, the great anomalies facing most developing countries are poverty, exploitation, ignorance, hunger, coups, injustice, alienation and cultural degradation.
There is increasing loss of moral and spiritual values and the mounting loss of faith in God, a loss of faith in life itself, its meaning and the impossibility for any change for the better. Many have given up. Others who had hoped for a better day in their lifetime have crashed on these hopes. Their visions for better world order have been marred. Here in Nigeria, corruption and the lack of any sense of direction have increased recently. In an attempt to find out how the present came to be and to fashion out better trends for the future, many worried, honest and truth seeking persons have called on the discipline of Theology for a direction.
The Social Teachings of the Church at this point in time has been challenged to respond to the “social question” in Nigeria as elsewhere by seeking elements from Christian social principles acceptable and adaptable to Nigeria and Africa for the solution to many of the problems facing the nation. The perspectives of the encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II: “ Laborem Exercens ”. expose them, seek their causes and offer from the perspectives of Christian
1 John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, no. 3.
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social principle relevant elements towards a solution. We are thus faced with problems of unity and diversity. How can we in the unity of Catholicity seek for elements relevant for the African situation from the Encyclical whose Social milieu were not influenced by the African situation without disrupting the unity in Catholicity?
Can we redefine and reframe the terms of reference, yet remaining original? In our attempt to consider the relevance of Laborem Exercens for Nigeria, our attitude is and must be, to re-translate and readapt the proposal and scientific argumentations and present in the document and to place them vis- à-vis the Nigerian world of work. In so doing, we are able to identify the differences and the meeting points. We are able to establish relevant values and put them in the context of a developing nation with a developing social ethics without denying the basic truths that guide man. In other words, we are able as Africans and African Theologians to make changes in the entire process of assimilating teachings from outside by giving definitions from an African contextual framework.
Theology talking to Africa has to be understood and translated into the realities of Africa so that the voice of Christ may be truly heard by the indigene without the risk of alienation. As has been sufficiently proven, both here and elsewhere, there are many inter-related aspect uniting traditional values and the social principles of the Church. Ours is a search for the identities and the differences, thus, the relevance of John Paul II’s “ Laborem Exercens ” for the Nigerian work ethics and properly so for the Nigerian civil and public service.
What is “Laborem Exercens”? A fundamental dimension of man’s life is human work. Human work is “the key to the whole social question”, that is, to all the problems, which have arisen for each one of us, for our society and for the world at large with the development of industries. It is through work that man can renew the face of the earth, because through work man creates, builds and organizes the society and the world. It can be conveniently asserted that everything that is, is a product of work, the food we eat, the houses we live in, the roads, cars, books, education, the family and society, religion and culture. Human work is the guiding thread through which all political, social, economic, religious and cultural aspects of man’s life in society are co-coordinated.
Laborem Exercens is the name of the Pope’s third Encyclical letter, devoted solely to the problem of human work. It is thus a social Encyclical, after the Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 21 manner of the first of the great Social Encyclicals by Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum or “Of Revolutionary Times” written in 1891 at a time of great industrial unrest and revolution in Europe with the attendant problems of capitalism and exploitation. Rerum Novarum was geared towards correcting injustices and calling people to order by establishing basic Christian principles as guidelines for thought and action.
Since 1891, successive Popes after Leo XIII have written on related problems on Social Questions. Worthy of mention here are Pius XII’s White Sunday Broadcast (1941); John XXIII’s Mater et Magistra (1961) and Pacem in Terris (1963); Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio (1967). With Laborem Exercens (May 1981), John Paul II joins the list of the ‘Social Popes’. A profound and wide ranging document, with over 15,000 words in length, Laborem Exercens was written to commemorate the 90 th Anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum (1981). Laborem Exercens was intended to be publicly announced on 15 th May 1981 – the exact day of the anniversary of Rerum Novarum . But it bears the date of 1 st September 1981, the feast of the triumph of the Holy Cross, and this delay was due to the Pope’s hospitalization after the attempted murder by Rurk Ali Agca. This ‘extrinsic’ affair with the date gives the document a personal and spiritual originality, which cannot be ignored.
Exposing work as a human participation in God’s creative activity, Pope John Paul II shows that work can be and must be the means of man’s fulfilment as an image of God. The product of labour must be worthy, the labour itself dignified, because the worker himself, is carrying out the creator’s purpose: “subdue the earth”, and in doing so imaging God to all his creation. The document contains many technical and difficult arguments to make its points clear, but it ends up as a directive for man the worker. The great social encyclicals of the Church, of which Laborem Exercens is the latest, are of their nature different from doctrinal encyclicals.
While the principles, which are essential to the teaching of the Church, such as the dignity of man as a child of God, do not change; the circumstances to which they apply do change, sometimes very radically. And so does the situation of man in the later part of the 20 th century. Like the Pope himself observes in outlining the main reasons for the encyclical, there are widespread introduction of automation into many spheres of production; the increase in the cost of energy and raw materials; the fact that the world is being intolerably polluted; the emergence on the political scene of people, who after centuries of subjection are demanding their rightful place among
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the nations and in international decision-making; The development of informatics and telematics; and vicious circle of inflation and unemployment; the distressing economic situation in the north-south axis, but also the unnecessary waste and endangerment of world peace in the east-west squabbling and ideological power struggle; the loss of a sense of culture and corporate work style; the marginalisation of the agricultural sector and the massive exodus from the rural zones to the cities; the social and economic under-valuing of the vocation of motherhood; the separation of work from its relation to the family and the issue relating to work and labour are seen only as determined by the dogmas of contemporary ideologies, the encyclical Laborem Exercens addresses itself to these problems in a new way.
And here lies the originality of John Paul’s encyclical on Human work. No one will overlook the fact that it was the first time that a Pope devotes an entire encyclical completely to this one theme. Although the Pope himself states he does not intend to deal with human work in an original manner but in organic connection with the whole tradition of the Church’s social teaching, his encyclical is original. In the first place, the choice of the theme exposes these facts. Unlike his predecessors who in their commemorations of Leo XIII’s milestone achievement undertake an organic review of the themes connected with the ‘social question, John Paul hesitates and writes rather on “Homo Laborem Exercens”.
His reflections are divided into five parts and contain twenty-seven paragraphs in the original Latin version of the document ‘Laborem Exercens’ . Part One, consisting of paragraphs one to three, is the introduction to the theme of human work with a definition of the concept. Part Two, consisting of paragraphs four to ten, discusses the details of work and man, the family and the nation. Here work in the subjective and objective sense is considered.
Part Three consisting of paragraphs eleven to fifteen, discusses the central conflict existing since the industrial revolution between labour and capital, a discussion which leads us to seek for the option of Laborimus which insists that human work comes before capital. Part Four consisting of paragraphs sixteen to twenty-three, considers the rights of workers within the context of fundamental human rights as agreed upon by the world community of nations. various groups of workers are considered, their situations and the possibilities for betterment. Part Five of Laborem Exercens consisting of paragraphs twenty-four to twenty-seven, contains elements for spirituality of work with Christ, the man of work as the paramount example, and the cross Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 23 as the way to salvation and resurrection. In this document, Pope John Paul’s reflections are deeply rooted in the Bible, where work is presented as participation in the mystery of creation and redemption, its characteristics being that work is necessary, painful, corporate, redemptive and creative.
The Pope’s Definition of Work In the encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II, “ Laborem Exercens ”, the Holy Father defines work as “any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstance, means any human activity that can and must be recognised as work, in the midst of the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself. 2
This definition of work and its meaning as given by the Pope has a very wide and broad scope. Work is referred to by the Pope as an activity. In the book of Genesis, man is presented as the only creature in all creation created in the image of God. “So God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:26) and gave him the command to “subdue and fill the earth”. (Gen. 1:28). This command contains within it an invitation to participate in the creative activity of the creator through work. Says the Pope: “From the beginning therefore, he is called to work” (LE, No. 1), man is called to work and to activity in the biblical words of the creator. “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth”.
Commenting on this biblical words, the Pope says: “even though words do not refer directly and explicitly to work, beyond any doubt they indirectly indicate it as an activity for man to carry out in the world. Indeed, they show its very deepest essence … in carrying out this mandate, man, every human being.” (LE, No. 4, 2). Through work, man benefits from past generations and works for the benefit of generations yet to come.
Work is thus directed towards an external object. However, it does not follow from this that work’s external purposes are the first importance, necessary though it is that all should be pursued. The second Vatican Council teaches, “as human activity proceeds from man, so it is ordered towards man”. This essential purpose of man’s work is to perfect himself than to change the world in which he lives, though he must change the world. In
2 Laborem Exercens, No.1
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changing the world, man supplies the material for human progress but that material cannot of itself bring human progress about. Work, a Specifically Human Activity Uniting all Mankind The Pope makes it clear that work is a specifically human activity. Just as man is a “homo sapiens”. “ homo loquens ”, so also is he a “ homo laborem exercens ”. This alone raises the dignity of work. Animals do not work; their natural movements and activities is not and cannot be regarded as work, but is rather best explained their instinct for self-preservation. Man however, beyond the instinct of self-preservation seeks self-realisation which work offers. In the words of Pope John Paul II, “Work is one of the characteristics that distinguishes man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth”. Since work is specifically human property, it is therefore a uniting factor for all men. This universality of work suggests the unity of mankind whether among men or among women, of every race and nation, who speak different languages, represent diverse culture, and profess different religions.
Work, a Means of Livelihood and Existence The second meaning of human work, dictated by the Genesis story: “in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…” and often quoted and elaborated upon by Pope John II is the concrete fact that work, is a means of existence, assures a livelihood, sustains family life and helps the working man earn some wages to satisfy his material and spiritual needs. “Thus man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology”. Work assures man’s life and health, either directly, whereby man grows his own food as farmer, or indirectly, whereby man does some job which earns him money to buy his needs. Man’s life, personality and development are shaped and dignified by work.
Work Gives meaning to Human Life and Existence on Earth In the Encyclical Laborem Exercens , the Pope brought to light one fundamental meaning of human work, stating clearly the fact that work reveals to man the true meaning of his existence. The problem of work has a very profound link with that of the meaning of human life. Because of this link, work becomes and indeed is a problem of man’s spiritual nature. As one of those aspects connected with the inscrutable mystery of man’s redemption aspect, one that is always relevant, demanding renewed attention and decisive witness.
In his first Encyclical letter “ Redemptor Hominis ”, the Holy Father stressed the fact that “man is the first road which the church must travel in fulfilling its Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 25 missions; man is the first road and the fundamental road of the church mapped out by Christ Himself… Man’s dignity is an elevated one; because of the saving work of Christ and so also is man’s work. For not only does work bear the imprint of man, but also it reveals to man the true meaning of his existence. Work is considered as a human activity regardless of its concrete content and circumstance. Work is endowed with this “basic dimension of human existence, through which man’s life is built up every day.
The Evils of Unemployment From the above distinctive characteristics of work, we have seen that work is necessary for man. But it is a fact that many people are unemployed. Critically looking at their situation, based on our objective but positive idea of work, we would be mistaken not to affirm that unemployment is an evil.
• It is an evil because it makes the unemployed less a human person, that is that which makes him distinctly different from other sub- human animals. He has no opportunity to seek self-realisation which work offers.
• It is an evil because through it people lose their rights to existence. “He who does not work should not eat” the sacred scriptures say.
• It is an evil because the people involved have lost their rights to growth in life. They have lost their human dignity since man’s dignity is an elevated one, because of the saving work of Christ, so also is man’s work.
It stands clear that the right to work stands as the most fundamental of all rights in the labour world, for it is only to the working individual, that all other rights descend upon. To be out of job means to be out of means of livelihood. One might even say that unemployment is not only an evil in the general sense in which we have described it, it can in certain senses also mean the negation of existence, especially in the context of Nigeria and many of the developing nations, where to be unemployed does not automatically guarantee social security, like in many European countries of today.
Unfortunately, there is no statistics available to buttress the exact number of Nigerians without work. But it is reasonably acceptable to state that about fifteen to twenty percent of the capable working population of Nigeria is
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without work. Majority of Nigerian citizens, both skilled and unskilled workers are thrown out of job, by private, public and government sectors. Human Work and Nigerian Situation in Pre-colonial Society We refer to Igboland and the pre literary, pre-colonial and pre-industrial Igbo culture and survey Igbo tribal society in its work structure before the birth of the Nigerian nation. Such a historical and cultural excursion is necessary, as we can better understand the background and attitude to work in Igbo traditional society before the political, cultural and social interruption of Igbo history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is important to note that what is said of Igboland, might apply to any of the various ethnic groups of Nigeria.
Attitude to Human Work in Igbo Traditional Society In discussing the attitude of the Igbo to work in traditional society, it must be made clear that some of those traits have disappeared in modern times among the same people and this is understandable. The time has changed, influences from Europe, America and other Africa and world communities have infested Igboland, and the caption of S. Othenberg’s book “Igbo Receptivity to Change” is being daily experienced among the Igbos of today. The society is no longer strictly an agricultural one, as industrialization, commercialization and new government jobs, among others have invaded the economic scene.
First of all, human work was understood in traditional society as a fundamental dimension of man’s existence because, through work, man was able to change, re-organise, and restructure his society. Work was therefore, regarded as a creative activity. Man built his house, built up his family, the village assembly, the village square and the places of worship through work. Secondly, the Igbo understood human work as a means to feed himself and his family and kindred. Here, work was regarded as a necessity of nature to keep body and soul together without which, the society, as Basden has tried to show, toiled “when there was a great necessity, either hunger, or superior force”. Leisure is appreciated and people should not overwork when it was not called for.
Summarily, there were two sole inducements to work, namely: to provide basic foodstuff for the family and the kindred and to provide shelter for the family. Thirdly, work was understood in Igboland as a corporate activity, performed by all members of the community and family. Through work a man, his wife or wives, and children were able to engage themselves in a Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 27 united and concerted action to complement each other and fulfil their basic needs. Work was a part of life, in the words of Francis Cardinal Arinze:
“Nobody was called a worker because everybody was a worker. It was taken for granted that everyone did some useful work, and most of it was rural ”.
Seen in this way, the ramblings in Europe in the nineteenth century concerning the situation of the “working classes” and the “employers” could not make any sense for the Igbo of the same period. Besides, the attitude of the Igbo view of work considered one kind of labour, namely, that of the farmer, as a noble activity as opposed to the Romans and Greeks of olden times, where manual labour was usually left to hired hands and slaves, since it was a “mean” job for the citizens. Worthy of free man, for the ancient Greek and Roman was work on poetry, science, philosophy and the art of participation in government. But for the Igbos, praises were lavished on the successful yam farmer and he had a noble status in the society.
Why this Attitude to Work? This attitude to work is understandable for various reasons.
• The climate was tropical, plenty of sunshine, sometimes very hard on the worker. There are only two clear seasons for the Igbos: the wet season and the dry season. This clear weather division into rainy and dry seasons, makes it imperative for the Igbo to work and plant in the wet season, and to harvest and rest for the greater part of the dry season, Nature thus played a vital role in determining work tempo.
• The material needs in traditional society were not generally flamboyant. People had just the minimum for existence, as a strong sense of materialism, unnecessary amassing or accumulation of wealth was generally absent.
• Thirdly, the needs of the family and of life were on the whole easily satisfied. The farms supplied practically all the food needed for daily consumption; yams, cassava, vegetables and fruits. Meat was available through hunting activities and its consumption was often modest.
Traditional Igbo Society – Absence of the Rich versus the Poor
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In Igbo traditional society, there was a marked absence of rich and poor classes. People were generally farmers and they grew their own food. Since most of them cultivate the same type of food, it is to be expected that their diet would be almost identical. There was a technological identity to what wealth would bring about to cause a class system among the people, as Max Glukman has mentioned: “with available tools; axe, hoe and adze, spear and trap, bows and arrows, dugouts or canoes and fishing nets, each man can produce little beyond what he himself can consume. Hence though the poor might work for those who have more, they cannot be employed to give the rich an elaborate level of life above their own.”
Under this condition therefore, the rich could not get rich in their production and acquisition as the possibilities for storage were limited, nor could the poor get poorer in their consumption of excess. It is thus a clear class of haves and have-nots, for everyone was forced to eat the same food, and live under the same circumstances.
Change of Attitude in Colonial Days Historians have described the period that opened up towards the end of the 15th century as the “Age of Exploration”, and this description covers many events that followed, namely; slavery, colonialism and Christianisation. A new impulse to exploit the natural resources of certain commodities which Europe did not have, the desire to counteract Muslim expansionism, and the wish to explore the so called “unknown world” forces the well-to-do classes of western Europe to tour round the world to seek for the suppliers of these luxury commodities; such as silk, ivory, gold, precious stones, and spices, previously obtained directly from Asia. What started as trade in legal materials ended up with slavery which lasted for over two centuries, costing entire Africa precious manpower and depopulation.
Colonialism took over from slavery. But Britain’s colonial policy remained exploitative and orthodox; “maintain law and order, stimulate the production of raw materials, create demand for British exports, and raise taxes to pay for colonial rule.” This policy lasted until 1960 when Nigeria became independent. In the context of Nigeria, the colonially imposed government with its federal structure coincided with Britain’s dreams, without proper consideration of the historical realities; the wishes of the various ethnic groups occupying the area, and was therefore from its inception unworkable and politically unrealistic as history has tried to prove in the stormy years of the nation’s existence.
Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 29
Colonial Heritage and the Crisis of Values In making reference to the problems of Nigeria, we are thereby attempting to locate the context and milieu in which the encyclical letter of Pope Paul II is being applied in its relevant message. As has already been shown from the preceding descriptions, the traditional society described above has already or is readily disappearing, following the intrusion of foreign powers into the political, cultural and social life style of the natives.
In fact, Nigeria today is undergoing a massive change in all spheres of life, be it economic, social, political, religious or otherwise. This situation has to a very large extent also changed the original attitude to work in traditional society it has changed the organisation of work and the type of work done. For many Nigerians, work is ceasing to be rural or subsistent and is becoming urban and white-collar Instead of hoes and machetes, people today work with paper and pen dressed in French or British suits to match. The Western European influence during the colonial after has left its indelible mark on the situation of Nigeria, and has inherently become the origin of all problems associated with the nation. This does not mean that the external causes alone are responsible for the situation. In fact, there are also internal problems which have no doubt joined to maximize the contradictions.
The problems of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, laziness, the tendency to materialism and self-centred politicians coupled with selfishness, the absence or total lack of intellectual rigour in dealing with issues, the cult of mediocrity, lack of exemplary leadership, the lack of fair play and the neglect of public utilities, added to the situation of “get rich quick”, armed robbery whether by single individuals, groups, or by public servants and elites, the cult of waste, consumerism, lack of efficiency, the exploitation of the weak and lowly, and above all, the indiscipline in public and private life – all these join hands together to make what we today call the ‘bane of the Nigerian society’.
The question of finding a formula to redeem the country from complete political, economic, social and moral collapse has been uppermost in the minds of Nigerians, both high and low, rich and poor, public officers and privately employed, students, teachers, churchmen, civilians and military men. Some have been content with mainly exposing the ills of our society,
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solutions have been sought, ideologies propounded and moral orientation schemes initiated, such as the ‘Low Profile’, ‘Otu Olu Obodo’, ‘The National Ethical Re-Orientation Programme’ and ‘War Against Indiscipline’ Why all these measures? What is wrong with Nigeria? Attitude to Work Today It has been sufficiently demonstrated in the preceding pages that Nigeria’s history is one of colonialism and extended economic exploitation, both from outside and from inside. Because of the colonial economic system with foreign firms such as the United Africa Company (UAC), United Trading Company (UTC), British Petroleum (BP), Shell, John Holt, Royal Niger Company, National African Company, all operating within the territory and carting away its raw materials to Europe; independent Nigeria inherited an economy that was in 1960 structurally engineered to be dependent on, and manipulated by the international money markets of Western Europe and America.
This dependence sees in government work, even after the colonial era a bourgeois institution that does not merit it. Government work is looked upon only as a source of “getting one’s share of the national cake”, and therefore many people are prone to look at what is government’s as “no man’s land and no man’s property”, and people render unsatisfactory service to it. There is strong negative ‘utilitarianism’ in people’s attitude towards national service and government work. The reasons are clear, and in the historical situation understandable. Commenting on this state of affairs Francis Cardinal Arinze wrote: “The colonial power was not loved and was served with less than total dedication.
Government business was regarded as nobody’s business. This mentality had a damaging effect on work attitude. Behind this assertion lays the principle that work which serves the good of foreign powers primarily and not that of the workers runs the risk of being haphazardly done.
The consequences for the natives was that new classes of people gradually came into existence with nothing to sell other than their labour. Surely they did not like this labour and would easily neglect it, but for the fact that they daily depend on it.
These hired labourers were fired anytime, poorly paid, sometimes beaten by the master, and they on their own, have bad reminiscence of this times. National work was looked upon with suspicion, as work for a foreign body. This attitude however, is gradually changing with the many appeals to Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 31 patriotism by the post-colonial governments but much has still to be done. The famous slang “ Oga Emem Pay ” (will it pay me, or rather, is it to my gain) often heard in the post-colonial Igboland is a product of this situation.
When attitude to work remains only utilitarian, only to get daily bread, but not to become more, not to help in nation building, not to build up a corporate body, that is, a community of workers, not to get spiritual fulfilment; when work is considered simple as a task to be done and get quick money, then we are away from the mark. Pope John Paul has a lot to offer the Nigerian worker in his attitude to work.
Work is considered alienating, especially paid jobs. Therefore, there is personal engagement or interest in the work done for others. And so, many Nigerians employed to work for an entrepreneur or for the government, engage likewise in private work, which can give them personal fulfilment or bring them nearer to their private wishes.
During employed working hours, many people play, eat, chat, prepare for exams, trade on other goods, but they do not work adequately for that which they are paid unless this is adequately controlled. The booklet on national consciousness and mobilization crusade’ titled War Against Indiscipline and systematically carried out by Buhari government has a lot to say on the point mentioned here. Slogans often heard during work hours include ‘Na me be Nigeria?’ ‘Me I no go die for dis kind work’, meaning simply that many workers do not identify themselves with the work they do.
Applying the Social Principles of ‘Laborem Exercens’ to Nigerian Situation Today In spite of all criticisms on external powers and on the past, Nigeria today needs authentic value to appreciate the actions of its citizen’s and judge their conduct, but these values cannot be solely created by western society and then applied to Africa. Africa’s values must and has to emanate from the realities of Africa, and it is only when committed individuals decide for this option that the new society ideally aiming at restoring the dignity of the human person can be created; the time has come for such a revival. To have a true understanding of the meaning and value of human work, we need only reflect on the following words of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has been blessed by the creator with rich human, potential and with natural wealth, such gifts received in humble
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gratefulness, are also a constant challenge, for the goods of this world are given by the creator for the benefits of all. Public authorities are entrusted with the sacred assignment to channel these riches to the best interests of the people, that is, for the betterment of all and future of all.”
Works as a Necessity It is man’s duty to work. It is by his work he must procure his daily bread; by his work that he must contribute to the continuing development of the technical arts and sciences; by his work that he must help to raise even higher moral and cultural standards of the society in which he shares his life with the human family. In so far as we fail in realizing this, we frustrate our lives and fail in what we owe the common good, offending against the virtue of social justice, which bids us to do habitually, whatever is necessary for the common good.
Since it is man’s duty to work, Nigerians may need to change their attitude to work, which since the colonial experience has become exteriorized. Work should not simply mean ‘Meal ticket’, but must be more for a country with the potentialities to elevate Africa. Work must be understood as necessary, creative, corporate, painful and redemptive.
Man as the Subject of Work Man alone is adapted to work. Indeed, work is one of the signs by which man is distinguished from other living creatures. Although active in sustaining themselves, animals cannot be said to work. Work is a fundamental dimension of man’s existence on earth, and through work man fulfils his life on earth. Therefore, work bears man’s signature, the distinctive mark of his humanity and nature; the mark of a person who is created in God’s image to act within a community of persons. We must keep always before our eyes the subjective nature of work. First man, then the rest. If we do this, we shall never neglect or deny the threefold external purpose of work, namely; family, nation and mankind; nor shall we neglect the dignity of the working person and the uniqueness of the individual.
Work in the Objective Sense The Encyclical Laborem Exercens extols the unique worth, value and dignity of man and asserts that economics must serve man, not otherwise. Man’s special relationship to God his creator and his endowment with reason, faith and external soul make him superior over work itself, the object of work, the tools and equipment used as working materials. Such an attitude will help Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 33 rescue Nigeria and entire Africa from the impending economic secularism and materialism facing modern nations.
The Primacy of Labour over Capital The conflict between labour and capital is superfluous and based on false views of man. The undoubted source of the conflict lay in the fact that when the workers offer their labour for sale, they put their powers at the disposal of a class entrepreneurs who were led by the principle that profit should be maximised and tried strenuously to establish the lowest possible wage for the work done. Apart from this, Man’s work was abused in other ways for the sake of profit; among the evils is the neglect of safety precautions and of provision for the health, living conditions of the workers and their fundamental human rights as well as their families.
The Pope offers the basic thesis that there is a priority of labour over capital, and at the same time, no inherent opposite between both. While recommending the sharing of profit between capital and labour, the Pope warns that both capitalism and socialistic communism, that is, economism and materialism have erred in setting mankind in an antimony of ideologies to the left and right. Nigeria must reject all ideologies whether to the left or to the right. Africa policy makers are thereby helped to strike a balance between rigid capitalism and extreme collectivism. We must maintain the primacy of man over things including ideologies.
Worker’s Participation in Decision Making The ‘personalist argument’ is offered as a valid alternative to all forms of work, which deprive the worker’s participation in the means of production, or bureaucratize his personality. As the document points out, the man who works rightly expects something besides a fair wage for his labour. He wants also to have the process of production so arranged that he works, even on something which is owned in common, he can be aware that he is working: on his own account.” This awareness is extinguished by excessive bureaucratic supervision which centralizes everything and makes the worker feel that he is just a cog in a huge machine directed from above; nay rather, that he is for more reasons nothing but a mere instrument of production rather than the true subject of work endowed with an initiative of his own. Failure in this respect inevitably does incalculable damage to the running of the economy; and has as its first victim, man himself.
Private Property
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On the ownership of private property, Laborem Exercens maintains that this right is a natural one and is in order with the will of God. Ownership of property, whether individually owned or in the hands of the community as titleholder must be strictly differentiated from rigid capitalism or extreme collectivism. Christian tradition has never held that the right to ownership is absolute and untouchable; rather, the right has always been understood within the broader context of the right, which is common to all men to use the goods of the whole of creation. The right to private disposal is plainly subordinate to the right of common use of goods that are intended for all mankind. In the context of Nigeria, we are guided from the above assertions to learn that man cannot live in poverty and squalor. An adequate method of distribution of the goods of the nation must be undertaken to ensure that the majority of the citizens have their rightful share of the nation’s resources.
External Influences Laborem Exercens rightly points out to African leaders as well as workers and employers everywhere, that some of the problems in labour and productivity are controlled by factors beyond the workers and his direct employer. Such factors, which cause dependence in economic relations, may be social such as international trade policies and relations, multi-nationals, and other economic determinants, which need adequate examination. Policy makers and economic experts are thus helped from the Pope’s research to know where the problems lie and to take necessary steps to curb them for the good of the worker.
The Rights of Workers and Human Dignity The rights of the workers are inalienable. By guaranteeing them these rights, the charter of the United Nations, which calls for the respect of human dignity and guaranteeing of human rights, are recognized. In the words of the Pope: “As the Magisterium of the Church has pointed out several times, that human rights constitute a primary condition for peace in today’s world, peace within states and social groups as well as between states. The human rights that flow from work fall into the broad context of these principal rights of the person” (LE, N.26).
Among the many rights of the workers which any serious nation must guide and guarantee are, the right of citizens to work; the right to just wages for work done; the right to resist all forms of exploitation; the right to strike when this becomes inevitable; the right to own property and to participate in the ownership of the means of production; the rights to various social benefits and insurance such as health, education, leisure and rest, pension and Pope John Paul II’s “Laborem Exercens” and its Relevance … 35 old age, protection against threats to personality and property; rights to practice of religion, freedom of movement, speech, thought and existence.
Other rights include the protection of women from chauvinistic elements of exploitation; guaranteeing the rights of migrant workers, technical workers, the disabled and unemployed and last but not the least, protecting the dignity of agricultural work by granting farmers essential support, services, loans and encouragement. In a developing nation such as Nigeria, official state policy must be aimed at achieving the full realization of these rights for the common good of all its citizens.
Spirituality of Works Finally, the spiritual orientation offered by Laborem Exercens confirms and elevates the traditional African conception of work, which if properly understood, contributes to the development of Africa, as well as in other continents, the conception of work as a God-given vocation to help in creation. Work will thus be understood as a human obligation in the complex meaning of the word, for the Creator has commanded it and man cannot live and grow in his humanity without it. Properly understood, work has before all else, the property of bringing people together, uniting them in the oneness of God’s supremacy. For through work, man cares for his family and those closest to him; he cares for the wide range of his human society, that is, the nation which is his mother, and the whole human family of which he is a member.
References 1. Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra No. 3 2. John Paul II: Laborem Excercens: English translation Encyclical on Human Work; CTS, London, 1981 No. 1 3. Genesis 1:26 4. Genesis 1:18 5. Laborem Exercens, No. 1 6. Laborem Exercens, No. 4, 2 7. Laborem Exercens, No. 1 8. Genesis 3:17, 19 9. Laborem Exercens No. 1 10. John Paul II, The way of Solidarity p. 283 11. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis,1979, CTS, London, p. 506. 12. John Paul II, The Way of Solidarity; op.cit (p. 281). 13. Basden, G.T., Niger Ibos, (p. 299)
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14. Arinze, A.F., The Encyclical Laborem Exercens in the African Context, (paper at Symposium: “From Rerum Novarum to Laborem Exercens, - Towards the year 2000” (Rome, 3-5th April, 1982, Pontifical Commission” Justitia et Pax,” (p. 208). 15. Gluckman, M. Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society; Black Week, Oxford, 1977, pp. 13-14. 16. Frederick Forsyth makes reference to this historical misnomer in his book on the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War; “The Making of an African Legend: The Biafra Story”, London, 1969, pp. 14-15. 17. Arinze F. Op. Cit; p 211. 18. John Paul II, Speech to President Shagari in Government House, Ikoyi, Lagos 12/2/82, published in “Daily Times” Special Edition, 1982. 19. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens No. 26.
Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering… 37
Chapter Four
Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering Our Ultimate Destiny
1. INTRODUCTION
The topic of Ethics, though ancient in its origins, has in our time and clime become a novel and compelling subject, both in its theoretical and practical engagements. Globally, issues of ethics are legion. In the media reporting on local and international cases of scandals around the themes of corruption, bad governance, abuse of public trust, value-less lifestyles, unethical behaviour, conflicts of interest and insider dealings, nepotism and mediocrity, it makes common sense to accept the fact that there is better way to conduct the affairs of men and women, namely: The Ethical Way. This conclusion leads the agenda of stakeholders in Education to seriously promote Ethics in citadels of learning and in higher Education.
Education is at the center of every human settlement. It is necessary for character formation for the young. Through education, the realization of meaning and purpose in society is enabled and beneficiaries are empowered to gain more access to opportunities, resources and power. Education if acquired continues to increase the value chain of any nation. This explains why the agenda for Education Reform remains priority for almost every country in the world. Under such transformational situations, there is urgency to adapt the world’s educational systems to consciously evolve and transform itself in order to support the critical swifts and transitions happening around the globe. The educational sector is challenged to proffer practical solutions for the challenges that face mankind at this time.
In the ongoing search for ‘Promoting Leadership in Thought that leads to Action’, the CADMUS Journal on its editorial commentary carried in Volume 2, Issue 5 of October 2015 makes a compelling point which bears repetition in this context. “There is need for multi-dimensional shift in higher education from an over-emphasis on information in an age of information glut to greater emphasis on understanding and organizing principles and relationships between phenomena. There is need to move education from memorization of facts to creative thinking,; from passive to active learning; from fragmented to contextual knowledge. There is need to move education from
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mechanistic to organic or ecological conceptions; from abstract to life-centric studies; from discipline-specific to trans-disciplinary perspectives. Finally, there is need to move education from abstract principles to spiritual values and from subject to person-centered and personality-centered education”.
The conclusion of this paper is the fundamental idea that education does not happen in isolation but is carried out through societal, environmental and human channels. Through education, the young and future generations receive knowledge and traditions that help them enter into the totality of reality. Therefore, a primary concern of society essentially is to teach the young. Society can only successfully rebuild itself through the younger generation. This is the opposite of what currently happens. But what do we teach the young? Can the teacher give to students what the teacher does not possess? How do we educate ourselves? How does education take place? Is education anything, nothing or something? Does this something stand for a system that educates what is human in humankind, especially the young, leading to recognition of the needs of humanity through all ages by pointing to their source, origin and end?
This realization helps the dialogue around the topic of education generally, and Ethics in Higher Education in particular. Although expressed in different ways in each individual, culture, custom and forms of diversity, the human heart is one and the same for it reflects the same substance.
The education of the heart of man in its originality as creation made it is one that calls for a genuine concern. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case as many modern societies through education destroy the human heart and innocence. This is where the debate must begin, namely, to distinguish the proper aim of Higher education from that which it is not. It is the ethical dimension for ethics after all is the establishment of right and wrong, founded on reason and what is ought, a category of good conscience, sound moral judgment and the free choice of a rational mind.
A university exists to provide multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional services to the community. As an autonomous institution at the heart of societies differently organized, the Magna Charta Universtitatum states that a university “produces, examines, appraises and hands down culture through research and teaching”. To hand down culture is to transmit traditions and adaptable ways of life. Culture in itself is not static but constantly dynamic, containing values, wisdom and knowledge tested over generation. One major component from the above definition is to state that a university is Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering… 39
Knowledge and value Provider. It stands or fails in its ability or inability to deliver on these criteria. Properly stated, education conveys learning and character. If it provides only one aspect, it lacks in wholeness, leading to the failures which many institutions operate and humanity suffers. The point is gradually clear. University teachers produce the global leaders of tomorrow. Fact is that the teachers are leaders of future leaders because they train the young. Teachers therefore bear a grave responsibility in their institutions, alongside parents, the government and the Media with the traditional institutions amongst others, to encourage value-driven leadership through the content, curriculum and methods of training professionals.
2. ETHICS MATTERS
Worldwide, information is multiplying at a phenomenal rate. Globalization has increased the social space, leading to borderless boundaries on the financial, economic, social, ecological, political and cultural dimensions of traditional societies. The world is changing with unprecedented speed and this is observed in virtually all sectors including within the university walls. Following the financial crisis of 2008 and the collapse of institutions and even governments, a phenomenon that started in the United States of America in year 2008, people lost jobs, investments and retirement funds.
An example of the crisis was the collapse of a world class company ENRON, alongside others and many wondered how this could be possible. The deeper meaning in the fall of this company is the fact that any system or governing structure is only as good as the people who administer it. In the case of ENRON, the need for morally informed corporate governance, founded on solid ethical principles, has been quite obvious. Abdicating such leadership in attempting to cover up poor management decisions is something that cannot stand if our society is to be free and virtuous.
Writing in the New York Times in his January 18 Editorial, Paul Krugman made the point that the “Enron debacle was not just the story of a company that failed. It is the story of a system that failed. And the system did not fail through carelessness. It was corrupted”. Yet, teachers in Business schools and educational institutions who had over the years turned out first class students and highly successful professionals and excellent specialists wondered at how this could happen with their bright students acting in freedom as ‘moral crooks’ but lacking in responsibility and virtue! Educational institutions produced them. These institutions are challenged to revisit their educational content, the school curricula and their overall systems which
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produce bright managers lacking in integrity and engage in teaching, training and research that links the heart and the mind of the human person in wholeness.
The few and simple questions to ask for the purposes of this paper include the following but is not necessarily exhausted or even in order of priority, namely:
1. What does education consist of, and how does it take place? 2. How can parents, teachers in schools, the responsible agents in the educational system and institutions within the larger society assist the education of youth and leaders of tomorrow with school curricula that contains Ethics and promotes freedom, truth, responsibility, skills, knowledge and virtue? 3. Is there a link between Ethics and Technology and how do we balance technological innovation with social and organizational motivation? 4. Does diversity and difference in contextually independent realities make a unity on global values and virtues impossible? 5. What possibilities exist to strengthen classroom curricula of studies that enhance both character and learning? 6. Is it possible to combine distant-learning education with formation of character in the ongoing available platforms of distant education? 7. How can societies and responsible agents systematically strengthen an ethical culture of integrity? 8. If young students are confronted with corrupt employers in a permissive and corrupt society, what mechanisms of support exist to promote values-driven education of students in their professional life especially in the early years?
At this period of world history, much of humanity stand in trepidation on the crossroads of insecurity, dissatisfaction, anxiety, wars, corruption, meaninglessness, discontent, unhappiness, economic and social upheavals. On the other hand however, the challenges of the present creates great opportunities, chances and hope for humanity on the threshold, using the tools of Education to promote responsible leaderswho govern nations and institutions across cultures and borders. Such leaders shall bedriven by universal values that sustain life and development for all and lead to the much Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering… 41 expected paradigm shift on international discourse towards a world for everybody that is peaceful and sustainable.
3. DEFINING EDUCATION IN CONTEXT
It does seem that many have an opinion about education and for that very fact divergent views that are predicated on personal experience. Several definitions depict varied understandings and points of view around the topic of Education. The English word ‘Education’ itself is borrowed from the old Latin word ‘DUCO’ which root means ‘to Lead’, to guide. Education which is abbreviated from the Latin roots of ‘duco’ and ‘vocation’, namely ‘educo - educare- educavi- educatum’ give vent to wider meanings and understandings which include aspects of: ‘leadership, cultured; knowledgeable and learned.
To lead others implies ability to lead with requisite knowledge, methods and ends. In considering the term therefore, the dimension of reasoning and acting emerge in the open discourse concerning the dual but integrated role of educational institutions in preparing the citizenry to become enlightened and civic –minded persons.
From the viewpoint of looking at things from their essence, purpose, last end and primary goals, to educate means to help the human soul to enter into the totality of the real. This gift and ability of humans to think and reason, described as rationality was considered by the Greek philosopher Aristotle over two thousand years ago as unique to humankind. Integral Education makes possible the emergence of all-round persons, equipped upon completion of studies to transform society and positively.
This is the business of a university in the current times. In defining education in the context of society in the twenty first century, ‘true education’ must be an ‘education in criticism’. It is the exercise to question things from their origin, allowing doubt and examination of the problem to come to a balanced conclusion and position. Therefore, ‘krinein’, ‘krisis’ which is the original Greek word for ‘critique’ means to ‘take hold of things’ and explore their content. This exploration of the content, such as the received ‘tradition’ is compared with the other realities including the ‘longings of the heart’. To criticize helps the inquirer to arrive at the need for the true, the ultimate, the beautiful and the inner standard of judgment which is identical for all humans. It is the search for the Good.
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Ethics in Higher education seeks exactly to become a vehicle to make people original and whole in thought and belief. In order to educate, we need to present the past in a suitable form. If young people are not taught about the past and tradition, they shall have a future without guide and may grow up either unbalanced or skeptical. In educating the youth, the past is presented within the context of life where experience speaks for itself. For the purposes of emphasis therefore, education must be critical. The young student must be exposed to the past through the experience that can propose that past and justify it through life experience. This is what ethics in higher education seeks to achieve.
4. CHANGE PROCESS THAT LEADS TO TRANSFORMATION
The challenges facing humanity at this time are many. The questions for humankind in virtually every country revolve often around the contradictions and issues of meaning and meaninglessness, truth and relativity, poverty and wealth, governance and insecurity, economic stability and greed occasioning harm, the crisis of leadership and insurrection in many places challenged by rising radicalism and the use of terror.
Other major challenges are ecological as we face diminishing resources, climate change and environmental degradation unknown in millennia of the existence of humanity. There are overall threats to legacies inherited as tradition as well as value orientation and questions of life byu a new generation of young people, eager to live well and move on, but not knowing how. How can value-orientation and value-driven leadership emerge with the right solutions to the many problems? The answer given by those who know is that Education is the key. It gives a new way especially such education that has foundations on knowledge and character.
Outlines for educational re-orientation mention the urgent need for a new vision for education. Such a new vision is radical in its nature because the topic of education especially for the teacher is referred to as a vocation and not a job. This new vision understands a shift from knowledge to practice and is aimed at self-reliance and sustainable education. This approach conveys the values of responsibility and transformation which prepare students for the position of global citizenship. With such shift, education protects and promotes the dignity of the human person and strives to create equal access to many.
Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering… 43
Yet, required performance has barely improved in decades. Mckinsey (2007) in his report on “How the World’s best performing school system come out on top” establishes many different ways for the improvement of the school system despite all complexity. He identifies three factors that make schools succeed and excel above others namely: a) getting the right people to become teachers: b) developing the teachers into effective instructors; c) ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.
According to Fullan (2012) the deliberate attempt to use ‘change knowledge’ to bring about whole-system reform in schools is barely fifteen years old. By change knowledge, he was referring to ideas and strategies that cause the system to move forward in performance, especially when it comes to raising the bar and closing the gap for all students. This model is particularly interesting to study because of the multiple strategies selected by school systems to ensure that they accomplish holistic change. Eight steps are proposed, based on the work of John kotter (2011) that assist and guide the education for change approach and the process that leads to transformation in the sector with ethical challenges. i. Establish a sense of urgency: This implies an urgent examination of the current realities of the education system. Without Ethics in higher institutions, students with much knowledge emerge but often lacking in character, lack in meaning and solid foundations. It is therefore necessary to build a compelling story using data and align it to economic indicators that reflect national development and quality of life. It must be compelling enough to reflect current and potential crises that can come from in-action. It also grants major opportunities inherent in the current situation of interdisciplinary models of education. ii. Form a powerful guiding coalition: This is the role of the ICDE and other stakeholders in the education sector to lead the change agenda in Higher education for ethical orientation of students and future leaders. iii. Create a vision for all stakeholders: the questions to ask include the following; How do we help create a vision that will direct the change effort? What strategies can we develop to achieve our vision for educational progress and systems?
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iv. Communicating the vision: These include the strategies for implementation, the monitoring framework and networking. Questions to ask include; What impression does a new teacher bring concerning our educational institution?. How shall this impression change after a period of 6 to 12 months serving the institution? v. Empower others to act on the vision: The Leadership has potential to identify real and imaginary obstacles to the agenda of transformation and works to find solutions. People at the decision levels can take risks and think outside of the conventional approaches if delegated to do so. vi. Planning for and creating short term wins: The basic question towards a successful transformation plan is to ask ‘How can we measure performance in a visible or verifiable manner?’ The next step would e to identify improvements and strategies ranging from interventions in teacher quality, teachers assessment model, students literacy and numeracy gaps, conducive school environment gaps, and gaps in instructional leadership understanding and modeling. Finally we should always seek for ways to reward performance. vii. Consolidating improvements and producing more change: Here, one builds on the credibility of successes recorded. A framework is established to consider the methodology of moving away from public service longevity model where promotions come based on group mentality and not on personal achievement and professional effort. Benchmarks for rewards shall be established with the change action plan. viii. Institutionalizing new approaches: How do we overcome the fad mentality as we plan to change and transform the education system? How do we institutionalize the changes and successes we have accomplished so it reflects at all levels of our educational system and processes? How do we recruit the best minds and encourage them to stay within our schools system? How do we create a wow effect at our most rural schools as a measure of our institutional quality? How do we ensure leadership development and succession? These form part of the thinking in the initial and mid-level assessment of performance. Ethics in Higher Education as Tool for Discovering… 45
5. QUALITY AND MANAGEMENT OF ETHICS EDUCATION IN HIGHER AND SECONDARY LEARNING
The key factors that may lead to success in this endeavor to establish quality education and proper management of Ethics in institutions of higher learning and even in secondary schools include some of the following factors: i. Forming and strengthening at the international level, an advocacy think- tank such s the ICDE, the Globethics.net and others that among other education reform thinking shall lobby at all levels of government and educational regulatory institutions for an education model that establishes a curriculum framework that is different from the current smorgasbord approach. ii. Build a structured collaboration with teacher education systems for hiring new teachers and re-training existing teachers in line with the vision for a result-oriented student centered school system in ethics matters. iii. Create a mentor teacher support structure for supporting new teachers in the first three years of joining the profession. This structure will also serve as a peer review and support team for experienced teachers not meeting performance expectation based on their student achievement. iv. Empowering the heads of ethics departments with resources necessary to deal with the obstacles that hinder the change process v. Build an assessment structure that will measure student overall achievement outside traditional frameworks and review indicators for measuring teacher overall efficacy – using student performance and professional development hours as some indicators. This assessment structure will not be used solely for measuring student or teacher rankings but for making decisions that improve whole school systems. vi. Continually review curriculum in subjects of Ethics to give room for topics that relate to freedom and responsibility. vii. Ensure that the students of universities already in early years in the university are made to attend the lectures on an obligatory level as General studies
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viii. Ensure methods of reward and punishment by awarding prizes and aiding endowments and scholarships on Ethics Studies
6. CONCLUSION – THE RISK OF ETHICS EDUCATION In conclusion, it is important to state that the risk of education explores what is our origin as human beings. It takes into consideration the fact ‘the unexamined life is not worth living;’ to quote the ancient sage, Socrates. Without the fundamental factors of self- critique, of the ethical questioning and practical engagement, of the fundamental factors of tradition – something lived out in the present that proposes and gives its reasons- the youth would remain fragile, doubtful and skeptical. Exposure to life’s experiences which is achieved beyond the classroom is risky. But it helps the student to become authentic, standing on one’s own feet and daring the current. This is the domain of Ethics in Higher education. It is confrontation with man’s real identity and the questions of contradictions of life, yet tackled beyond doubt.
In this quest for the establishment of more ethics concerns and institutions of higher learning, programs for ecological entrepreneurship emerge. The context of a new vision for education which calls for policy shift and mindset from reading and writing to skills acquisition with relevance for daily life and society becomes imperative. Ethics education is opportunity for a new value orientation. Such education ensures the training of both the teacher and student, develops new technologies and conclusively allows a new vision, a new policy, a new market, new resources and a new system. The risk of this kind of education is the emergence of a new humanity of responsible leaders driven by value and virtue and knowledgeable enough to transform their environment and serve entire humanity in a new society yearning for ethical and fair minded leaders.
Gl obal Poverty and Global Health 47
Chapter Five
Global Poverty and Global Health - From the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) To Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s)1
Challenges and Lessons from the Perspective of Christian Social Ethics
1. The Topic Global Poverty and Global Health Concerns – Challenges and Lessons from Christian Social Ethics
Permit me to start my contributions with some questions as we face difficult challenges worldwide. These challenges are not new but they seem to have increased in the intensity of terrors, wars, global insecurity and economic uncertainty plus political turmoil experienced in virtually all nations at this time. The continuing disrespect for human life and dignity and the seeming lack of will and value driven leadership to solve the problems poses urgent imperatives on the discipline of the Social Teaching of the Church to Teach and Act, in the words of Pope John XXIII in Mater et Magistra.
As we mark 30 years of Ordo Socialis and stage this important congress here at the CSI in Bad Honnef, it is gradually clear that the most important challenges we face are not simply political, economic or technical. They are rather Ethical, Moral and Spiritual. Our time and countries face fundamental questions of life and death. This implies who moves ahead and who is left behind.
Because we are a people of faith, Gospel demands command us to bear a responsibility in public life as the leaven in society..."You are the Light of the World... You are the Salt of the Earth... A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" (Mathew 5). The challenge is extended for leaders of religious organizations, particularly those who are guided by research and training and in governance to increase their space of participation to include the ethical dimensions to
1 IKE, O. F.; paper presented at the Catholic Social Institute in Bad Honnef, Germany on the occasion of 30 Years of Ordo Socialis
48 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance play its role in public life. This is generally the mission of Jesus Christ himself, who, moved by the Spirit, declared "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has annointed me to bring Good News to the Poor" (Luke chapter 4). The current challenges worldwide does not leave us in apathy or lethargy but rather to swing urgently and renewed into more Christian response, founded on sound reason, common sense, natural law and the light of charity to act in the sphere of the Socio-Political and cultural with the leaven of faith.
In serving the Common Good which Christian Social Principles identifies as the only justifiable cause for intervening in the public sphere where all meet, some questions recur, dealing on global health and poverty and such questions remain the domain of the CSI, the ORDO SOCIALIS, CIDJAP and the entire line up of institutes, political parties, agents of State and Church who desire a better world. There is consensus and rejection of the world and its governance as it is currently because many believe it was meant to be different and better. Thus:
1. How can we build not only a safer world for some but a better world for all, a world that is more just, more secure, more peaceful, more respectful of human life and dignity and for all?
2. How will we protect the weakest in our midst, especially those who have no voice. These include the innocent unborn children, the aged, sick, homeless and destitute?
3. How can nations refuse violence as a means to solve some of its most difficult problems, for example, when persons in authority resort to Abortion in order to deal with difficult pregnancies? Or practice the The death penalty to combat crime and criminals? In some cases when Euthanasia and assisted suicide is applied to deal with the burden of age and disability? Or even extreme cases where War is made an instrument to settle matters which normally dialogue and openness could have solved including industrial disasters?
4. How do we address the tragic fact that more than 30, 000 children die every day as a result of hunger, international debt, and lack of development around the globe?
5. What future do we offer the teaming young people facing poverty in the midst of plenty without foster (often replaced by robots) and growing with un-sustainable values Gl obal Poverty and Global Health 49
6. Can our parents in various nations of the world raise their children with some relaxed absence fear and anxiety, with respect for life, sound moral values, a sense of hope, an ethic of STEWARDSHIP and RESPONSIBILTY?
7. How can our society defend the central institution of MARRIAGES and better support to FAMILIES in their moral roles offering those Real Choices and financial Resources to obtain quality education and decent houses?
8. Children die of malaria and preventable diseases. Medications are produced in large quantities and then burnt off as well as food because the spaces for stocking them is filled. Is it not possible across parties and nations to address the growing numbers of individuals and families who lack access to affordable Health Care?
9. And how can Healthcare better protect human life and respect Human dignity?
10. Is it impossible for societies to combat continuing prejudices (racial, tribal, class, religions, gender without an ideological agenda)?
11. How do we overcome hostility toward immigrants and refugees?
12. Is poverty destined or man-made and could humanity not overcome widespread poverty, pursue values of justice and peace, reduce widespread injustice and contain violence?
13. What are the responsibilities and limitations of families, community, organizations, markets and governments? How can these units of society, work together and synergize to overcome poverty, pursue the common good, care for creation and overcome injustice?
14. Can we not fortify, improve our determination to work for greater respect for human life, dignity, Religious freedom, democracy and rule of law.
These and other questions cross my mind as I consider the topic you have given to me to reflect upon in this audience. We shall not necessarily find the answers immediately. But we may at least ask the questions and genuinely search for answers along the lines of the Christian Social Principles which is tested and trusted.
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3. Fundamental questions on global poverty and the challenges before us
Poverty and inequality have long been concerns of development economics. A social development paradigm with an emphasis on pro-poor growth is replacing the tickle-down industrialization model. Eradicating poverty and rectifying extreme levels of inequality go hand in hand with economic growth. It is true that a broad-based participation of people in productive activities can increase a nation's total output of goods and services, and promote economic development. However, poverty and inequality are not just economic issues. They are ethical issues as well,
When we see people suffering from materially and psychologically desperate conditions, we are compelled to act. Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Society of Jesus, has spoken about four challenges facing humankind. In his 2008 speech addressing the students of Sophia University, he declared world poverty as a "social challenge', and called on us to work hard to eradicate it. He referred to the lack of worldwide access of learning opportunities as a "cultural challenge", and encourage us to achieve education for all. He also mentioned the protection of the environment as an "ethical challenge," These four challenges are all linked. The eradication of poverty is supported by equal access to quality education and a fairer society so that everyone who receives education can have more options in their lives and fulfill their aspirations. Universal access to education and a fair society are not about promoting economic growth. They are about ensuring human dignity. These challenges call upon our sense of ethical responsibility.
Inequality also tests our ethics. Inequality is not just about income gaps. We may not value the same things in life. People and society may pursue different paths whose values cannot be compared by a simple measure of how much you possess. As Catholic Social teaching suggests, we need to have faith in the poor to organize themselves and choose the life they wish.
Still, an extreme income gap in a society and between societies is alarming because it could erode cohesion a basic sense of trust between people who do not know each other. A reasonable degree of social cohesion is needed so that a society (and the world) can function, and for people to have the chance to increase their opportunities in life.
Again, education is perhaps one of the most important public policies to address inequality and trust. Education can reproduce an unequal society if it Gl obal Poverty and Global Health 51 is not offered equally to all. Equal and fair provision of educational services, however, can rectify issues of inequality. Education can also promote bonding of different groups when it draws children of different social, cultural and economic backgrounds. In both cases, a national government plays a critical role, even in this globalized and increasingly borderless world.
4. Fighting Poverty and Global health diseases from MDG’s to SDG’s The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) – 2000 to 2015
These are a United Nations initiative. The correspond to the Eight International Development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000 and the adoption of the UN millennium Declaration. They are the world's time-bound, measurable, universally agreed objectives and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions. These eight aims are:
1. Income 2. Poverty 3. Hunger 4. Disease 5. Lack of adequate Shelter 6. 5. Exclusion 7. Promoting Gender Equality 8. Education for All 9. Environmental Sustainability
With the job unfinished after fifteen years 2000 to 2015, the Assembly of World Leaders following agitations by millions of people shifted the attention of the UN to another set of objectives now called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s)- 2015 to 2030
The SDG’s replaced the MDG’s on 15th September 2015 as the world leaders gathered at the UN in New York to adopt the 2030 Agenda for sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda comprises SEVENTEEN new Sustainable Goals, which guide policy and Funding for the next fifteen years, beginning with a historic pledge to end poverty, everywhere and permanently.
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The SDG’s applies to all countries, promotes peaceful and inclusive societies, creates better jobs and tackles the environmental challenges of our time on climate change. The SDG’s include the following:
1. End Poverty 2. Zero Hunger 3. Good Health and Well Being 4. Quality Education 5. Gender Equality 6. Clean Water and Sanitation 7. Affordable and Clean Energy 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure 10. Reduced Inequalities 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities 12. Reasonable Consumption production 13. Climate Action 14. Life Below Water 15. Life on Land 16. Peace Justice and Strong Institutions 17. Partnerships for the Goals.
5. Statistics on global health and poverty
Consider these facts obtained from the Website of the United Nations UNICEF and other relevant organs of the UN. The poorest 40 percent of the world's population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children each day due to poverty. And they "die quietly in some of the poorest villages on each, far removed from the scrutiny and conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight and Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
If current trends continue, Millennium Development Goals target of having the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Gl obal Poverty and Global Health 53
Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 percent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
Less than one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the 2000 and yet it didn't happen.
Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 millions deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350-500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malaria deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.
• Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 per day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
• More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
• Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometer, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 liters per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters a day.)
• Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhea.
• The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
• Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
• Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
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• To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.... The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labor diversions... are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.
• Number of children in the world ...2.2billion
• Number of poverty...1billion (every second child)
• Shelter, safe water and health for the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, are;
• 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
• 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
• 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
• Children out of education worldwide 121 million
• Survival for children worldwide:
• 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as Children population in France, Germany Greece and Italy)
• 1.4 million die each year from lack of access drinking water and adequate sanitation health of children.
• Worldwide 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
• 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin. Gl obal Poverty and Global Health 55
Approximately half the world's population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.
In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass fuel wood, charcoal and animal dung to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.
• The world's wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%)
• The world's billionaire's just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world's population) were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).
• Low income countries (2.4 billion people accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)
• Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7)
• The world's low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just 2.4% of world exports
• The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world's financial assets.
• In the other words, 0.13% of the world's population controlled 25% of the world's financial assets in 2004. A conservative estimate for 2010 finds that at least a third of all private finance wealth, and nearly half of all offshore wealth, is now owned by world's richest 91,000 people ---just 0.001% of the world's population.
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The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Value s... 57
Chapter SixSixSix
The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Values as Ethical Values
Abstract The fundamental thrust of this paper is the ambitious claim which postulates that there is an African Business Ethics, the challenge of which is to rediscover Traditional African Values and apply them to modern Africa, thus, building a sound foundation for doing ‘Business’ in an ‘Ethical’ manner and making them known to the rest of the business community. The paper takes as its evaluative focus African Business Values and Ethics. These are pre- eminent virtues still known and operative in various communities all over the continent. Some of the points that will be touched upon are the question of African identity; it’s past and future, as well as aspects of African philosophy relating to religion, culture and ethics. The paper tries to show how such issues fit into and/or relate to many modern categories of Western philosophical paradigms.
KEY WORDS; African Identity, African Culture, African Values, Time, Tradition, Modernity, Oral Tradition, African Philosophy.
1. Introduction: Basic Questions
"When God created the world, he gave the Europeans the CLOCK (Watch) and gave Africans TIME."
Amazing or perhaps, as simple as this assertion may sound, there is something which attracts a deeper inquiry from the traveller, the researcher and scientist, the drivers of business and captains of industry, academics, tourists and historians and many others who travel through the continent as they observe, in contra-distinction to the experiences made in other continents, Africa's quite distinctive attitudinal belief in and practice of a take- it-easy lifestyle. Such a belief and practice are often expressed in such statements as God is in control and tomorrow is another day.
This paper is not about generalizations. It is about identifying specifics of the African world-view. It raises questions about the inherent rationality in the
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cosmology and interpretation of the universe by African traditions and religions, often expressed in holistic and interconnected terms. This is different from a ‘Cosmo-vision’ generally found in Western philosophies, namely, one which identifies reality in clearly spelt out, separated and isolated beings, each seen in linear and particularistic terms and analogically separated from each other.
The point being made here is that Culture matters precisely because Culture and its ingredients provide the key to a proper understanding of reality. It is also helpful in solving problems that emerge from this basic reality. What comes to my mind is the oral interview I once conducted with Ozor Neife Ozoike, a wise old centenarian from Umana Ndiagu in the Ezeagu land of Eastern Nigeria. During the interview Ozoike said in part:
"People who do not look back to their ancestry cannot look forward to posterity."
Without taking into account this reality of African culture, how would one explain a certain ease in the African mind and its elastic attitude to ‘Time’, vis- a-vis the mentality of a clear mechanical dependence on the electronic clock or watch found particularly amongst peoples of the Western hemisphere? Thus, the term African Time has emerged and has become both entrenched and readily accepted as a modus operandi in African lingual expressions. One encounters it wherever one may travel within the continent. Lateness is excused on the grounds of African Time! If one may be allowed to generalize on this topic, it seems that there is more to this phenomenon which makes an African live life leisurely. In comparison with people from other continents, Africans relax more; they laugh a lot and tell many stories. This mentality certainly affects Business and Ethics in the African context. In Africa, it has a universal application.
The question is: “how and why is it so?" This question also offers a valid reason for the exercise, attempted in these pages, to understand and study the Integral Nature of African and Cultural Values considered as Ethical Values. All over the African continent, there is an amazing identity as to how people regard both business and Ethics and as to how they understand the concept of ‘Time’, not just as an exact moment but as something around or ‘surrounding’ an event. To repeat: "Why is this so?"
To avoid biases or prejudices, it is critically necessary to be allowed to present an African perspective without the use of interpreters in a search for knowledge and its transfer across cultures. As has become clear in inter-cultural The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Value s... 59 exchanges, cultural divergence amongst the peoples of the world has led to much misunderstanding, prejudices, injustices, exploitation, xenophobia and even wars. These consequent, negative tendencies are unhealthy for the peace of nations and for the sustainable balance needed for individuals and communities worldwide, that is, if they may be happy and fulfilled in their essence. The challenge is to launch a new inter-cultural and inter-communicative dialogue that presents itself as a fundamental human right as "we emerge in the new millennium and in the 21 st Century”.
2. Background and Justification The background for this reflection and its attempt to justify a notion of Understanding Africa from an African Perspective is a reminder that much of what is ‘known’ or written about Africa stems from non-African ‘experts’: intellectuals, traders, anthropologists, travellers and missionaries. In their writings, most of these observers tend to look down on Africa and its peoples who are considered as primitive, barbaric, uncivilized. Africans are deemed as lacking in any ability for rigorous philosophical, ethical or even scientific development, comparable to the external paradigms offered by the Westerners, by Islam or by writers from various Eastern traditions.
The postulation being made here about Africa and Africans (not in mere general terms) derives from available facts and from ‘on-the-ground’ realities. They are based on credible works of research done by many African writers, especially since the past 100 years. It contends that the African world-view, its cosmology and philosophical foundations, its religions and ethical foundations have an inherent rationality and ability that interpret the universe in holistic and inter- connected terms and not in isolated, linear and particularistic terms, separated from each other.
Numerous questions can be asked when dealing with this topic, questions meant to give some sense of direction for the thoughts expressed here. Such questions include: What are the ideas and the underlying philosophy in African societies which have given rise to such concepts and practices as the understanding of the ‘Earth’, the attitude and use of ‘Land’, property and ownership, family values, respect for the elders; reverence of the ancestors; the role of gender: men, women and youth? What is the African attitude to life, to the divine milieu, to God, religion, the spirits and the spiritual realm? How is consensus built in communities? What does community mean to the African and how is the spirit and practice of community life conducted? Are there governance and needed structures in village social affairs? (One would wish to include here reflections on aspects of medicine and health, work and
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its relations to the past, present and the future.) What is the concept and the purpose of law? What of the adjudication of cases where legal cases arise? What of the concepts of ‘morality’, ‘democracy’, ‘management’, ‘profit’ and ‘price allocation’, ‘transparency’, ‘environment’ and ‘ecology’?
The rediscovery of cultural and religious values translated into ethical values would also focus on other areas of production and work such as industry and enterprise, manufacture and commerce, trade and agriculture, hunting and game, taxation issues, contracts and labour relations, money and capital, (including the factors of production), markets and competition, and supply and demand factors in the economy. One overriding question still remains to be reflected upon, namely, how community harmony takes precedence over individual rights? Is there an Ethics in Business in the African World-view? Can there be an African Business Ethics?
The fundamental thrust of this paper is to give a background for the ambitious claim that there is in fact an African Business Ethics; the challenge is to rediscover the ‘Traditional African Values’ and to apply them in modern Africa. In this way, an attempt can be made in building up a sound foundation for doing Business in an Ethical manner and for making them known to the rest of the business community. The paper takes as its evaluative criteria, African Business Values and Ethics. Such values and such an ethics are pre- eminent virtues; many of these are still known and operative in various communities all over the continent. The point is to reiterate them in order to bring out their impact for our study.
Some of these values include respect for the divine and the sacred; respect for elders; keeping one's promises and standing by one's word; being honest at all times; to act with justice and fairness in dealing with others; to exercise legal consciousness and to observe the rules; the interest of the community having priority over private and individual interests; avoiding conflicts of interests; practicing transparency, disclosure and accountability in every situation; preserving the ‘common good’; respecting and protecting life and the environment (humanity and nature); being prudent in speech and not harming others; being content and eschewing greed.
Such espoused traditional values should be regulated and applied to modern issues of sustainability, the Corporate Governance Function and applied in the service of the Common Good. Our search, therefore, is not to invent new codes of conduct, but rather to rediscover these inherent traditional values and principles of sustainability, subsidiary and solidarity. The next step The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Value s... 61 would be to apply them to the modern models of a global culture that speak of Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics so as to contextually maintain the best practices within an African milieu. In doing so, we should be able to establish the integral nature of African cultural and religious values considered as ethical values.
3. African Identity as the Unity of the Past, Present and Future African cultures and philosophies as found from the Horn of Africa to the Southern Cape, from the Western Atlantic shores of Senegal through the massive forests of Central Africa to the Indian Ocean washing the shores of Kenya, express three levels of existence that incorporate the Past (ancestors from whom traditions, ethics and cultures derive their origins); the Present (the community to whom the individual belongs); and the Future (as yet- unborn generations; one has to ensure continuity and sustainable management for those who will come after us). These three levels are cardinal points in understanding the African view of the relationship between culture and religion, tradition and ethics, private and public interests, the human community and the world of nature in general including animals and trees, and animate and inanimate beings. Although customs varied from community to community in matters such as marriage, burial rites, title taking, there still prevailed a central link for various African communities on the "ultimate questions of life concerning the origin of human existence, the purpose of life, death, the why and how of things, moral laws, land and markets, to mention but a few”.
4. African Philosophy African philosophy is one of Community, expressed in the phrase; "I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am". In the original African society, the areas of culture, religion, law, economy, politics, history, morality and trade are not easily separated. This is a tradition that identifies the peoples at their deepest levels of consciousness and accompanies their every activity. Any external evaluation needs to take into consideration the factors of the interplay between the sacred and the secular in African societies: "the connection of the seen and the unseen, the union of the dead with the living, the spirit with the ordinary human and the dependence of the earthly human who is seen on the spiritual which is unseen" (Uzukwu). One way of dealing with the wide spectrum of The African might be in terms of at least the following ten categories.
••• Culture (Omenala), understood as the entire way of life of the people
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(including the past, the present and the future), is the traditional law in African societies, a central thread guaranteeing the protection of life and property, the harmony of the members of society not only among themselves but also with nature, and their linkage to the divine through the ancestors and the deities. It is said that every people has a culture; a way of life that links their past to the present and points to the future. Even though culture is not static but steadily dynamic, some of the elements that provided the rationale for cultural practices in the past may have disappeared in the face of modern realities of migrations, new technologies, scientific discoveries, wars, to mention just a few ingredients. Nonetheless, there is an urgent need to enhance the linkage and sustainability of cultural developments and its interpretation at least on the levels of principles that identify these societies, even in the face of the modern age. In the African milieu, whether amongst an agricultural people or nomadic tribes. Culture (Omenala) provided a proper foundation for a sustainable economy, where the preservation of the environment, the enhancement of principles of equity and fair play and the promotion of an economy that recognizes both individual interests and communal protection existed side by side without any contradictions.
••• Inter-generational Context: The above mentioned aspects of African culture (Omenala), is transferred from one generation to the next by oral tradition through symbols and rituals, in fables and dances and in the moral formation and religious traditions of the peoples of Africa: "as soon as a child is born into the community of 'Umunna' (brethren), life is affected by the intricate network of restrictions and all that they represent. Immediately a child is able to speak and understand issues, ... it is exposed daily to the do's and don'ts of the society and parents drum it into its ears, through fables told in the night around the fireside and exposure to the various forms of rituals and other observances, the gravity of committing abominable acts” (Olisa).
••• Property Rights: Private Property, understood as a ‘Social Mortgage’, emphasized the right of access of all persons who belong to the community, to the gifts of nature, including the various factors of production such as land and labour. Even though the community respected the right of individual ownership of property, this did not imply the amassing of wealth by a few to the detriment of the majority. In other words, ownership of property was subjected to its universal destination and use by all the members of that community. The idea of a philosophy The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Value s... 63
founded on the principles of "it belongs to me but I belong to the community" {Umunna; Ubuntu) ensured that property rights were guaranteed, but not in an absolute system as found in capitalist societies. A property right was limited by overall social (stakeholders) interests.
••• Religion: which relates man to the unseen universe of the deities and the gods in a sense, conveying humanity's dependence on the world and spirits beyond man, emerged in African Cosmology as a natural phenomenon. This interconnectedness between the spiritual and secular signifies an interrelatedness of the past, the present and the future generations. These factors are to be considered in decision-making processes. Thus, the taboos of many African societies, even in unwritten and pre-literary symbols and traditions, protected the overall environment, including land, animals, water, forests and nature via religious codes. Respect/or nature is noticeable in the many traditional societies on the continent, since humanity attained both continuity and history through the elements ; a truly organic understanding of ecological sustainability and a philosophy still practicable and noticeable in many business practices in contemporary times. The point being made here is that there is no African without a sense of religion, a practice of religion and a link to some form of religious adherence. Many, therefore, say that atheism is un-African. Authors in their research works prove the point which is corroborated by the various experiences of daily life in the reality of traditional religions existent on the continent and "in the many African cultures and societies all of which show that to be African is to be religious". About the African it is said that "they eat, drink and live religiously. There is no unreligious African" (Mbiti). African religion is not an isolated abstract, but is again embedded in culture and is considered as part of culture, which is a way of life of the people. The Igbo cosmology of Nigeria did not distinguish between religion and the secular society but created room for an interdependent world where "the secular is so interwoven with the sacred that one does not exclude the other, nor could one be conceived without the other, thereby giving religion an anthropocentric outlook" (Odoemena, A).
••• Linkage between Culture, Society, Economy and Religion: There emerges an 'inter-wovenness' between religious beliefs and cultural practices. Attempts to delink this 'inter-wovenness' during the Islamic and Christian religious missions proved impossible; these mistakes are currently being corrected under a so-called agenda of enculturation. Win-
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Win scenarios emerged from this world-view and practice, thus, making it possible to evolve from the Omenala (culture, tradition) unique principles that can give an integral understanding to economy, society, culture and environment. It is in this way that traditional African religious values, philosophies and cultural practices are now being unearthed and re-branded into the new and emerging religious space on the continent.
••• Values guide Life: The point being made here is that African traditional religion is essentially a philosophy and a spiritual way of life, which permeates, pervades and animates the traditional social institutions, norms and celebrations. Every Igbo ritual act of the peoples of south- eastern Nigeria, including sacrifice, dance and festival, had a philosophy or idea behind it. In other words, action was motivated by and grounded on values which involved a basic belief, a philosophy, an underlying principle or an idea. These values, thus, generated actions and behaviour, which in turn influenced individuals and groups.
••• Business Ethics is always Social Responsibility: Even though the study of Ethics is classically made distinct from morality and emerges on the philosophical and scientific scene, especially in modern times, as the rational basis for the ought-ness or wrongness of actions by humans (in relation to what is right and wrong). Ethics here does not refer simply to cultural beliefs, traditions or religions, but to the rational basis of establishing the fact that it is rationally fair or unfair to treat people outside the ambience of justice. This Western model of Ethics which continues to gain ground in the many humanistic and speculative sciences and other areas of human endeavour, elicits its scope and array in such disciplines as business ethics, media ethics, bio-ethics, social ethics, political ethics, economic ethics, environmental ethics, legal ethics, gender equity ..., and the list continues to grow. In an African ambience, doing business is always an ethical matter. In this context, therefor, Business Ethics must entail social responsibility, where the community is an extension of the business and business an extension of the community.
••• Ethics is Culture: A discussion of ethics within the African ambience must necessarily involve a discussion of both the African philosophies and cultures, and their moral and overall ethical practices. The point of linkage between religion, morality, law, social and economic realities is the domain where the African locates tradition, the Omenala (culture), which is the foundation for Ethics, and therefore, the rational background The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Value s... 65
for living together. In summary, this contribution from the African point of view achieves the promotion of stakeholder participation which enhances communal living and values based on principles of onye anwuna ma ibe ya efula, which is "live and let live", implying the age-old Social Ethical Principles of justice, fairness, solidarity and subsidiarity.
••• Life is the highest Moral and Ethical Value: The integral nature of African Cultural and Religious Values as Ethical Values begins with an understanding of life which is considered Sacred and which has to be preserved, protected, promoted and generated. In this sense, homicide, murder, suicide and other unnatural forms of death inflicted on another were considered crimes against the ‘Earth’ and a breach of the bond between human beings, the deities and the earth itself. Such breaches were a destruction of the communal foundations upon which society existed and had to be pacified by all means by the entire community even where the culprit and his family had to undergo expulsion from that environment. In serving life, the Omenala (culture) in its ethical dimension sought to serve communal harmony, to respect the past heritage of ancestors and the laws of the land founded also on religious beliefs, and to help in the progress of the economy by protecting the earth and making laws to discipline erring persons who thwart the laws of the land.
••• Modernity still contains Tradition: It may amaze some, but the reality ‘on ground’ shows that the traditional Omenala is still the link between the ethical, religious and secular realities, as well as the basis for the legal system and morality in general. It still exists as strongly today as it did yesterday. Africa's beliefs in traditional religious practices, cultural practices and even the lifestyles of the present are still found in the many big cities of the Continent. Many modern cities carry the cultures of their peoples and we find them in Lagos, Abuja, Accra, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Enugu, Cairo, Tunis, Nairobi, Lusaka and Harare, to mention but a few.
5. Conclusion and Practical Applications The main issues from an African perspective on this integral linkage between Religion, Culture and Ethics which unfortunately do not fit into the modern categories of many Western philosophical paradigms, actions or thought patterns are as follows: ••• A broad understanding of culture which encompasses the entire way of life of a people. Thus, culture (Omenala) has the potential to assist and
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guide modernization processes in a sustainable manner as founded on cultural rationality (derived from the past) and as projecting into the future. In the face of radical and rapid changes worldwide, so also in Africa, globalization, migrations, technological advances, the danger of losing original sources (including cultural integrity) all remain threats. There is an urgent need to look again into the primary sources of traditional cultural rationality in order to enable a significant yet sustainable development. One may do this by promoting inter-cultural dialogues that look into Africa's past history so as to retain or reclaim elements with relevance and applicability to modern economies.
••• Religion as an integral reality, a non-dualistic relationship between the sacred and the secular in promoting an integral understanding of creation is what is called for. Here, the presently living, the yet unborn and the living dead, all share in a cyclical bond which determines the being and consciousness of all Africans. This kind of religion determines the relationship between humanity and divinity; it has formed the basis for the reverence of creation governed by God and a respect for the earth (Ala) which had its own ethical implications. One of these ethical implications is a deeply rooted respect for nature as an organic understanding of ecological sustainability.
••• Law as a service to harmony, which regulates issues of justice and community by prescribing the rules which governed society, is indispensable. It was unique in building consensus, social harmony, reconciliation and equitable relationships. The essence of the law and of justice in traditional society was not to blame this or that person, but to settle the matter for the social harmony of the entire community and its continued existence.
••• Economy, where business is not separated from ethics and where nature is preserved (ecology), needs intensive implementation. Land is thus, understood not as a good for absolute ownership, but one for being used and respected as such. In many cases, land in traditional society was not sold but allowed only for use, since the ‘Earth’ was recognized as what provides sustenance to the agrarian economy of traditional society upon which everything depended, to cover the needs of the past, the present and the future. Besides, an absolute sale of land was conditioned and practiced only as leased on a temporary basis, to enable the transmission of this scarce good for future generations. This traditional The Integral Nature of African Cultural & Religious Value s... 67
cultural value translated today as a Business Ethical model can serve as a deterrent to a greed whereby those who wish to do so can buy off all that is available because of their capital base. Wealth has significance when it is used responsibly to further community interests and not hoarded just for individual aggrandizement. In Africa, one acquires reputation by adding value through one's wealth which is to be shared with the village community.
••• Win-Win Scenarios in Business: The principles that find relevant application in this context include; Recognition and Promotion of Win- Win scenarios in the economy; Social Responsibility of Business; a "We- and-Them consciousness in social relations; Property as a Social Mortgage and a Natural Right; Inter-connectedness between Spiritual Realities and the Material World.
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Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethi cal and Religious Considerations 69
Chapter Seven
Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethical and Religious Considerations
Statement of the Problem For a long time now, many have conceived development solely in economic and technological terms. The religious, cultural, and ethical dimensions were seldom recognized. Seldom did experts consider that religious and cultural conditions are important for any development strategy that is geared towards human promotion. The failure of so many development projects and strategies and the consequent critiques or rejection of the very idea of development by many in recent times can be attributed largely to this lopsided and anti-cultural understanding of development. The euphoria of modernization carried many African countries with their elite away. Consequently, they lost touch with original sources of African culture; but they did not succeed to become European. The wisdom saying among the Igbo applies “people who do not look back to posterity, cannot took forward to prosperity”. The development models conceived in western nations and transported to African Nations failed woefully. Attempts by people of non- western cultures to develop themselves according to their priorities and their own innovative rationally have all too often been dismissed as irrelevant. Efforts at cultural authenticity have in many cases been repressed in spite of the cosmetic and external show of readiness for inter-cultural dialogue.
However, there is a growing agreement today that there is much scope for closer investigation of the ways in which development choice are sustained in their turn by religious world-views of widely differing cultural origins. By way of analogy, one could draw from a reminder the need to search for innovative potentials from the cultures of the third world that have the ability to carry on and sustain a self-reliant and independent, rationalization and modernization process. Because of the specific affinity of religion to rationality, Max Weber accorded religion a primary role in this process of rationalization and modernization and this is what could be new in the contextual reading of Weber’s writings considered in other cultures. It is not just the transfer of economy or technology from the west to African nations
70 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Polit ics and Corporate Governance that is at stake; rather, it is the search for categories for the definition and evaluation of cultural, ethical and religious conditionality relevant for the development and modernization potentials of Africa. The evidence of cultural change attests to the well-known fact that culture is not static. As society develops and history progresses, people interact and modify existing traditions to suit new situations. Cultural change therefore is a constant challenge for one to redefine one’s identity anew. This challenge can hold where there is a preservation of cultural continuity. This is the “internal logic” which, according to Weber, is the basis of all societal rationalization.
Thus mastery cannot be achieved only through economic or technological transfer. What we need in Africa are avenues for creating a basis for categories necessary for the determination of religious and cultural conditions of development potential. This would form the base upon which a society could revolve. Consequently authentic development is given ethical, cultural and religious grounding.
Development in the Context of Africa Africa is a continent of striking features and embarrassing paradoxes and contradictions. It is the second largest continent in the world and perhaps the richest continent in terms of natural resources and potential wealth. Yet, Africa is perhaps also the weakest continent on the globe. Her sons and daughters rank amongst the poorest of the world and her societies among the least developed. It is peripheral in the world’s geo-politics and economics; and is characterized by the paradoxes of rehabilitation, acculturation, fragmentation, retardation and location.
Socio-Economic Environment: In the socio-economic sphere, the African condition is a painful and disgracefully reality, a distressing scene of a vast majority of desperately poor people living side by side with an aristocratic, privileged and shamelessly opulent few. In its mid-term review of Africa’s recovery programme (1885- 1990) an ad hoc United Nations Committee submitted that:
The African situation is characterized by unsustainable, crushing burdens of external debt, substantial declines in export earnings due to several depressed commodity prices and significant decline in resource transfers and private investment and land.
As in the rest of the third world, this situation is traceable to two broad categories of reasons: one, natural factors of inclement conditions and, Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethi cal and Religious Considerations 71 secondly, human factors of an unjust world economic order, corruption and the incompetence of political office holders. For, as Paul Harrison points out, “the astronomical order is as unfair to the third world as the economic order”
Problems of Africa’s Geographical Location At the centre of this “unfair astronomical order” is the unrelenting sun whose debilitating rays fall with unremitting intensity on the world with the two tropics, Cancer and Capricorn, cutting across the continent and making of it the world’s hottest zone comparable in heat only to some of the desert areas of Asia. To be habitable, the earth has to maintain a radiation balance; that is, to reflect back as much heat as it receives from the sun. Different parts of the globe, however, do not do so at the same rate. The temperate zones have a radiation deficit, sending back more heat than they receive, while the hot zones have radiation surplus, absorbing more heat than they return. A balance is maintained through a global weather machine consisting of winds, rains and storms.
All the poor nations of the world including virtually all of Africa belong to the hot zones and pay a high price for holding mankind’s “front line” against the sun. Most parts of Africa have a temperature average of well over 25 degrees Celsius at which level humus is broken down much more quickly than it forms. The effect is that most parts do not have good agricultural soil. There is an explosion of life from hostile animals to humans. For example, mosquitoes, tsetse flies, black files, sand-files along with their diseases, which weaken or kill humans, wilt and blight their plants, eat up crops alive in the fields or quietly feast on them in granaries and storerooms. Finally, Africa suffers from an irate pattern of rainfall. It is always the typical tropical weather: “never moderate, always extreme. Too much rain or too little”. This, too, is linked to the tropical sun. The net result of all this is that several parts of the continent get flooded and suffer drought at different times of the year. The floods create enormous erosion problems with gaping gullies dotting the landscape in several parts of the continent, and the attendant loss of arable lands and plant nutrients.
Human Factors Impending Africa’s Integral Development The human angle to Africa’s deplorable socio-economic status can be divided into two: the external factors of an unjust world economic order and the international division of labour, and the internal factors of corruption, incompetence and mismanagement. The external factors are easily traceable to Africa’s colonial past and neo-colonial present. The success of the 19 th century industrial revolution in Europe created the need for ready markets
72 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Polit ics and Corporate Governance and secure sources of raw materials for her nascent capitalist and industrial economies. Slave trade was forcibly suppressed. At the instance of the then German Chancellor, Von Bis-Marck, the infamous Berlin Conference (1884- 85) was held during which African colonies were divided and made the dumping ground for European industrial manufactures and the economies of Africa were carefully tailored to meet European industrial needs.
World War II (1939-45) generated sufficient momentum for nationalistic demands for change, which brought political independence to most countries of Africa in the 1960s. This momentum was however, not strong enough to alter the essentials of colonial economic relations with the west. The essence of the colonial order was the exploitation of the “men and materials” of the colonies for the benefit of the metropolis. In the past, colonial administrators supervised Africa’s production of raw materials and minerals for European industries. Today, under the dutiful supervision of native leaders, African still produces raw materials and extracts minerals which are hauled away mainly to western industrial nerve-centres.
Thus, the exploitation continues on two broad platforms, through an international division of labour effected during colonialism which assigned to Africa the task of producing low-priced minerals and raw materials; and through an unjust economic order in which the west determines, much to African’s disadvantage, the prices of our own exports as well as their own industrial manufactures.
The Kenyan novelist, Ngugu Wa Thiongo in his book, Devil on the Cross graphically portrays the nature of this unhealthy relationship of exploitation in a moving parable about a peasant farmer and an ogre. He writes:
The old man told me of a peasant farmer who used to carry an ogre on his back. The ogre had sunk its long nails into the neck and shoulders of the peasant. The peasant was the one who went to the fields to get food, the one who went into the valleys to fetch water, the one who went to the forest to get firewood and the one who did the cooking. The ogre’s job was to eat and thereafter to sleep soundly on the back of the peasant who became progressively thinner and more depressed at heart. The ogre prospered and flourished, the extent of being inspired to sing hymns that exhorted the peasant to endure his lot on earth with fortitude for he would later find his rest in heaven. One day, the peasant went to a diviner. The diviner told him that the solution Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethi cal and Religious Considerations 73
was for the peasant to boil some oil and to pour it on the nails of the ogre when he was fast asleep. The peasant said: “what if I should burn my back”. The diviner said, nothing good was ever born of perfect conditions. Go home”. The peasant was saved from death only when he did what he had been advised to do by the diviner.
Our continent has found neither the pluck nor the wits to free itself from the stranglehold of various exploitative tendencies. Nothing demonstrates the truth of this affirmation more clearly than the insuperable debt burdens of the various nations of Africa. It is, according to Babu, a pathetic situation of “institutionalized colonialism”. By 1985, the total debts of sub-Saharan Africa were put at between 130 and 135 billion dollars. Reports by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements indicate that by the end of 1984, Nigeria, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Congo and Mauritania owed net debts of 20.8b, 7.1b, 2.1b and 1.8b dollars respectively to western creditors. These debts average at $1, 170, $1, 230 and $2, 003 per head in Mauritania, Congo and Gabon respectively.
Today, Africa’s worsening economic crisis has resulted in the deepening of her debt crisis. In Nigerian, for example, the total external debts have risen from 20.8 billion dollars in 1984 to 32.2 billion dollars by the end of 1990. Nigeria spent over 3.2 billion Naira in servicing those debts. Far more worrisome and, perhaps, more damaging than any harm done from without either by nature or by the human agent is the sufferings which Africa’s political leaders and public office holders inflict on their people through a growing culture of corruption, mismanagement and gross incompetence. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, whose history is said to be “a story of missed opportunities, of how a nation could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” will suffice for an illustration. Assessing Nigeria’s thirty years of nationhood, C. Don Adinuba writes:
Mobilization and utilization of human resources have become the world’s technology and economic miracle, Nigeria has an abundance of natural resources, but owing to gross inefficiency in management, remains a typical “third world’ country. Unlike the mountainous South Korea whose arable land is only 22 percent of its 98, 484 square kilometer but today exports food, Nigeria with 87 percent of its 923,768 square kilometers arable, import food items. Unlike Malaysia which some three decades ago began to plant Nigerian palm trees and cocoa seeds in its soil and has since
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become the world’s largest exporters of palm produce and coca, Nigeria has in the recent past had cause to import palm oil from the Asian country. Unlike the Arab countries which have used their petro-dollars to invest massively in different countries, thereby diversifying their revenue sources, Nigeria, at the height of its oil boom in the 1970’s… preferred to play Father Christmas by paying the salaries of striking workers in the Caribbean, by sponsoring expensive jamborees and embarking on white elephant projects with its head of state telling the world that money is not our problem but how to spend it”.
These white elephants or abandoned projects can be seen scattered around the country and are valued at several billions of Naira. In Kaduna state alone, the total value of abandoned projects was placed at 5.5 billion Naira in 1987. It is thus the case that after three decades of independence and the launching of five national development plans, Nigeria still lacks most of the basic amenities of a modern state, dependable sources of good drinking water, steady supply of electricity, mass-transit systems and good roads. Most Nigerians still live either in rural huts or in urban slums under very poor sanitary conditions. More than 30% of school age children are not in school because their parents cannot afford the fees paid in the nation’s poorly equipped and ill-staffed primary and secondary schools. Yet, Nigeria has spent billions of Naira importing five-star hotels, modern stadia and television stations, and more than fifteen non-viable local airports and three international airports.
Millions of scarce foreign exchange has also been wasted in sponsoring expensive sports jamborees, unnecessary foreign travels by ministers and government officials and in maintaining bloated foreign services around the world. With the growth of profligacy in government spending, corruption in public office has also increased. In 1983, for example, the then communications minister, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, in a newspaper interview, revealed to a bewildered nation that Nigeria was losing 50 million Naira monthly in the Post and Telecommunication department as salaries to non- existent workers. In order words, in one year, Nigeria would have lost a whooping 600 million Naira in this single racket alone. And, of course, that says nothing of corruption and looting in other federal ministries and in the civil service of the twenty one states of the federation nor does it speak of the Customs department and of the private sector.
Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethi cal and Religious Considerations 75
In sum, the above factors: inclement weather, an unfair world economic order, corruption, incompetence and mismanagement in public office, political instability have combined to drive Africa into a very severe socio- economic crisis. Consequently, hunger and malnutrition are the greatest killers in Africa. According to figures provided by the United Nation’s Economic for Africa, 100 million African, a quarter of the continent’s population, get less than 80 percent of their daily food needs, while thousand, died every day from malnutrition. This situation reached a climatic head in 1984/85 and 1991/92 with several hundreds of thousands dying of hunger and starvation in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Only the effective intervention of the international community and the highly successful fund-raising efforts of leading pop musicians prevented catastrophe from reaching the proportions of the Nazi holocaust. Human misery of such proportions calls for a programme of development that is ethically grounded.
Development Cooperation and Ethical Propositions The problems of the north and the south are interlinked. Many of the problems that exist in the south and characterize the so-called “under- development” are also to be found in the north, for example, destruction of the environment, health problems, refugees. Many of the goals that have been set in the context of cooperative development work for the south are equally important for the north, for example, strengthening democratic structures, environmentally supportable food production. A lot of the problems that currently exist in the south can be traced back to structures and modes of behavior found in north, for example, the debt problem, unequal trade relations, culture alienation.
Development must take place in the north and in the south simultaneously and on a reciprocal basis. “Development” can no longer be understood as something that is almost exclusively necessary for the so-called developing countries. Cooperation development work can no longer be regarded as something that is applied by the North to the South. Cooperate work only make sense and is justifiable when it is viewed from a global standpoint and when its activities are defined on reciprocal basis. Development has to be redefined through a more democratic process, socially, politically and economically with simultaneous interdependent changes in the north and in the south. For example, the analysis of the problems, the discovery of the potentials and the definition of the goals in a particular area must take place simultaneously with regard to the north and to the south. Parallel measures to realize the collectively defined aims have to be undertaken in the west as well as in the third world.
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Interference in Foreign Society is justifiable on the Basis of Reciprocity The dominance of the north over the south is based on economic and military supremacy. A solely economic viewpoint that prevails in cooperation development has thereby justified the one-sided interference by the north. This standpoint reflects a hidden Euro-centric ideology that requires the south to evolve along the same lines as the North and accepts the “logic” of market-based economic thinking. The industrialized countries are regarded as the center of the world and the model to which the developing countries as marginal and subordinated areas are adjoined. It is in this sense that cooperative work has to be decolonized.
Cooperative Development Work requires new Forms of Communication and Analysis Development is a complex social process in which a very large number of different influences and powers interfere. Cultural, social, emotional and symbolic aspects are therefore as important as the economic dimension. Development models cannot completely take account of the role played by these powers. For comprehensive cooperative development work the intensification and distinction of the communication between partners in the north and the south is important. Democratically organized structures and forms of communication and analysis have to be developed cooperatively, in which vision, openness and willingness to learn have a place, and values as measured by the north do not dominate. This also requires that existing power differences are made transparent and subject of discussion.
Cooperative Development Work has to be engaged in just Distribution The worldwide prevalence of the market economy system also integrates the so-called developing countries more strongly into the world market. The exception is the poorest countries that tend to be dissociated from the world economy. Attempts at delinking from the world market as a chance to purse self-reliant development, have to lead to a dead one. It is the task of cooperative development work to counteract the continuing concentration of economic power in the north. The aims in the south as in the north are the limitation of unchecked market forces, the redistribution of power and wealth at all levels and the strengthening of local and regional structure.
Decision Making to Lie with Mixed Bodies Development in Africa: Cultural, Ethi cal and Religious Considerations 77
The competence to take decisions has to lie with bodies in which south and north have equal representation. The democratic functioning of these organs and the realization of common criteria for the implementation of the measures have to be guaranteed.
The Interdependence of Problems of the North and the South Demand Specific Strategies for Resolution Cooperative work between two countries, regions, partners can in practice take on different forms: Change will be realized by targeted measures that have positive effect on global problems. For examples, alliance with the same objectives between partners in the north and south that attain the goal through the use of specific measures, for example, the reduction of carbon monoxide emissions. In both regions, appropriate measures should be adopted to improve a situation that has a particularly negative effect in the south although the problem is rooted in the north. For example, the prevention of the flight of capital from a third world country to Switzerland.
Cooperative Development Work is not only the Business of Aid Organization Cooperative development work that is based on double approach cannot remain the business of aid organizations alone. It demands cooperation with movements, organizations and institutions in the north and in the south, that are accordingly active in the area. Governments, Churches, trade unions, etc, cannot delegate the responsibility for balanced development between north and south to aid organizations. The aim of this broad based cooperation is an improved coherence in the relationship between the west and the countries of the third world.
Making Contacts are Concrete Ways of Gaining New Experiences The simultaneous realization of activities that are by their definition interlinked makes possible a broader exchange between groups, organizations, villages and towns in the north and in the south. This means a further development in initial links that already exist today. What is important is the development of networks between individual projects and their foundation within a global framework.
NOTES 1. Max Weber, Gesammelte Audratze Zur Wissenchaftslehre, 3. Auflage, Tubingen, 1968, 594. 2. A.A. Mazurui, The African Condition, London: 1982, p. 116.
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3. Quoted in L. Salim, “Tough Compromise on African’s Economic Crisis” in West Africa No. 3721, London, and Dec. 5 – 11, 1988, p. 2286. 4. P. Harrison, Inside the Third World, London: 1988, p. 22. 5. Loc. Cit. 6. Ibid. pp. 23-24 7. R. Watson, “Current Food Conditions”, in Africa: A Season for Hope, ed. by W.D. Roberts, (California, 1985), and p. 48. 8. Harrison, op. Cit., p. 24 9. Ibid, p. 25 10. Ngugi W.T., Devil on the Cross-, London: 1988, p. 62. 11. A.N. Babu, “A more Sinister Form of Colonialism” Africa Now, 31:30-11, Nov. 1983, p. 31. 12. E.C. Ngwoke. The Crisis of Underdevelopment in Africa, Unpublished B. Phil. Thesis, Ikot Ekpene, 1986, p. 26. 13. C.D. Adinuba “Nigeria: The Making of a Nation” African Commentary, Dec/Jan. 1990-91, p. 35. 14. See C. Achebe. The Trouble with Nigeria, (Enugu, 1983), p. 39. 15. See Newswatch, Lagos March 5, 1990, p. 16.
Philosophical Response to Socio -Political a nd Economic Challenges in Africa 79
Chapter Eight
Philosophical Response to Socio-Political and Economic Challenges in Africa 1
The Fulani Myth of Creation I crave your indulgence to begin this discourse with a narration of the Fulani Myth of Creation, for this ‘myth’ which translates into the actual facts and behaviour of humankind, underlines the topic I have been asked to discuss at this largely dignified and philosophical audience;
“At the beginning, there was a huge drop of milk; Then Doondari came and created the stone; Then the stone created iron; and iron created fire; And fire created water; and water created air;
Then Doondari descended a second time; And he took the five elements and he shaped them into man; But man was proud; Then Doondari created blindness, and blindness defeated man; But when blindness became so proud; Doondari created sleep and sleep defeated blindness;
But when sleep became so proud; Doondari created worry and worry defeated sleep; But when worry became so proud; Doondari created death and death defeated worry;
But when death became so proud; Doondari descended for the third time; And he came as Gueno, the eternal one; And Gueno defeated death.”
(Translation by Ulli Beier, in African Poetry, 1966; Cf. Obiora Ike: Understanding Africa, 2001).
1 IKE, O. F.; Paper delivered at the Jubilee Symposium at the Spiritan International School of Theology (SIST), Attakwu, Enugu on 7th December, 2012.
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This myth of creation narrated amongst the Fulani tribe of Nigeria and found in West Africa allows for reflection and deep thought. Some of you may recall that as children in schools, we learnt much early an old adage that taught us the following: Pride goes before a fall . This is the lesson I derived from the Fulani myth of Creation and I apply it to the reality of modern economic, social and political factors of disintegration amongst nations and peoples in our time. History books and folk tales are replete with stories that teach how a proud humanity believes in its ability to make and unmake, trusting in its capabilities alone, but often disregarding the other and the beyond . The above Fulani Myth of Creation simply reminds one that the time has come for humanity to develop new narratives, new metaphors and a new storyline for the urgent and compelling threats that face the political, social and political pillars upon which humanity seems to stand.
With nuclear warfare accumulation, actual war and threats of war, humanity faces a predicament at its ability to sustain peace for the human species. We reached a stage where the ability to make weapons and make use same weapons also translated to the ability of both self-destruction of the inventor and the larger human ecology through the so-called weapons of mass destruction. My analysis of the problematic is to locate the question of the socio-political and economic challenges facing Africa and humanity today to the question of meaning, therefore of philosophy which is essentially the search for enduing values.
Ideas can Change the World It can be said and let it be said again that good ideas can change the world . Throughout human history, new ideas have had a transformative impact on humanity, resolving ancient mysteries, uncovering new creative powers and opportunities. Many strikingly original intellectual ideas and social conceptions have aided the advance of civilizations and cultures.
The Spiritan intellectual and missionary tradition was founded on Ideas, is led by Ideas and has been sustained by Ideas, under the guidance of the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD, as Christian faith and other religions would profess. This message is essentially the Good News of teleology; that the entire creation is made for a purpose and that this purpose can only be fulfilled if it corresponds to the eternal Will of the Eternal Mind and the Unseen Hand that governs the universe. This is the invitation and the challenge of this Symposium – a call for ideas that translate into action.
Philosophical Response to Socio -Political a nd Economic Challenges in Africa 81
As many of us have learnt, the history of human development is commonly described in terms of advances in technology, but this is an overtly-simplified view that disregards other transformative agents of change. The catalytic impact of the Club of Rome’s report: The Limits of Growth (Aurelio Pecei, 1969) is sufficient proof that ideas can change the world. Ideas possess a transformative power. Social evolution is propelled by the perception of new possibilities, the formulation of new ideas and the adoption of new values which release and channel human energy for higher levels of accomplishment.
A cursory x-ray shall show how great human ideas have benefited entire humanity with their many positive potentials in the areas of agriculture, specialization of labour, property, markets, cities, money, banking, democracy and the internet. These are but a few examples of how new ideas have transformed the way we live and work together. Human rights, political rights, economic rights and social rights are catalogues of values which have radically altered the fabric of social relationships, leading to the progressive emergence of the individual as the pioneer and creative leader of social development. Let me underline this theoretical fabric: “ Ideas possess a transformative power. Social evolution is propelled by the perception of new possibilities, the formulation of new ideas and the adoption of new values which release and channel human energy for higher levels of accomplishment.”
We are invited to seek radical remedy to the prevailing social ills in our countries, not merely in technological fixes, but in a re-examination of the fundamental ideas and values on which the current system is based. The limits we confront are mental limits – limits to our perceptions, understanding, imagination, idealism and values.
Crisis Creates Opportunities This paper offers in summary the philosophical postulation that out of crises opportunities emerge. The biblical story of Genesis and the act of creation follows this principle: Out of Chaos and Ex nihilo (out of nothing) , the world was made (Genesis chapter 1). If challenges are opportunities, then never before have the opportunities been so great; for never before has the African continent, nay Nigeria and humanity in general faced challenges comparable in magnitude and complexity to those that have emerged in recent times.
Exactly on the social, political and economic fields do we find the need therefore for a manifesto for change. After several empirical studies and experiences of the drivers of capital and leaders of nations, one is led to
82 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corpo rate Governance conclude that responsible leadership demands consequences necessary to sustain the earth and build a more sustainable earth, but not on the models that have so far guided international behaviour. Times have changed.
Economic theory has to be radically reinvented to squarely face the reality of rising unemployment, widening inequalities, growing ecological threats, frustrated social aspirations and unmet human needs.
Take a look at the Arab Spring and the revolutions going on in North Africa, the Middle East and the level of insurgency we experience here in Nigeria off the phenomenon of Boko Haram. When human needs are not met, the stage for radical transformation and revolution is set. Monetary and fiscal policies are too crude and insufficient to steer the essential change of course required to address multidimensional demographic, ecological, economic, political and social crises.
New values are needed to guide policy formulation and new institutions are needed to support peaceful social evolution and inclusive, equitable development in an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, to quote Ian Johnson, in the just published October series CADAMUS of the World Academy of Art and Science (Volume I, Issue 5, October 2012, pp. 11 ff). This is the situation of Africa and indeed the globe.
The facts emerge when we consider ecology for example. There is deepening ecological crisis driven by unbridled economic growth, soaring energy consumption of natural capital, generating serious concerns over anthropogenic climate change, severe damage to terrestrial and ocean biodiversity, increasing water scarcity, rising energy costs, and depletion of resources.
Basic needs such as food are scarce in many African countries and this indeed is becoming global. We observe periodic food commodity crisis driven by rising food prices, declining efficiency and productivity, depletion of scarce soil and water resources and diversion of arable lands to non-food energy crops.
Poverty indices are on the rise. Every African nation has its story to tell of enduring crisis driven by a divorce between growth and human welfare, and aggravated by rising levels of unemployment, income inequality, food and energy prices. Philosophical Response to Socio -Political a nd Economic Challenges in Africa 83
The list is endless, when we consider the economic parameters of finance and financial markets. The banking crisis is driven by inadequate and unfettered markets, leading to a growing diversion of financial resources for speculative, non-productive purposes and undermining the stability and growth of the real economy.
Finally, considering issues of security, a result of aggravating factors: an emerging crisis in social stability, cohesion, physical and social security arising from the widening gap between human aspirations and available opportunities. These have led to alienation, social unrest, crime and violence, all serving as fertile soil for the polarization of society and the rise of varied forms of fundamentalism.
The conclusion of the above mentioned pressure points is the assertion that those piecemeal fragmented strategies cannot address the pressing challenges facing the African continent, its peoples and indeed, humanity today. There is need for multi-dimensional interdisciplinary approach in addressing the global problematic, identifying its root causes, engaging the negative consequences through concerted human action. It is a call for transformational leadership at all levels.
The Root Cause of the Crisis A more fundamental question and the philosophical route to take involves considering the root causes of these universal syndromes which we call crisis. Studies agree that these pressure points of food insecurity, poverty, political and economic instability, cultural disarray, social inequality, unemployment and ecological degradation share several striking features. The first is their mutual interdependence. Each magnifies the severity of the others and is in turn aggravated by all the others.
The second is their common origin. Each can be traced back to similar underlying factors and “root” causes. This is the major reason why each of these multiple crisis defies effective remedy by piecemeal strategies.
The third is the fact that they are all anthropogenic in origin. All are the expression of human ideas, values and actions, not inalienable laws of nature. Which means, that all can and can only be rectified by a change in our ideas, values and actions.
A thorough analysis and evaluation shows that the true source of the problem lies at a more fundamental level, namely, in the present value
84 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corpo rate Governance system and structure of modern society. And this present value system will only lend itself to permanent remedy when understood and addressed from a deeper and wider perspective .
Let us not forget that the first economists were moral philosophers seeking to design a better social system to meet human needs, not scientists in search of some immutable laws for the economy. Economy is a human activity intended for a specific purpose. The production of things including goods and services, the application of technology, multiplying money, and even growth itself are merely means to an end, not ends in themselves. There can be only one legitimate aim of economic activity which is to promote the maximum welfare of all human beings over time.
This means that a New Economics founded not only on deterministic natural laws but on the human quality is required and must be founded on rational thought rather than fundamentalist dogmas whether unbridled and unregulated free market capitalism or planned economic determinism described as communism. A human centred theory of economics must place people first, while fully recognizing that humanity forms an integral part of the natural system.
Values are not Merely Utopian, they Define Us The current crisis confronting humanity today reinforces the importance of values as the essential basis for global social progress . Unregulated markets that serve the few at the expense of the many, undemocratic institutions of global governance, rising levels of inequality, unsustainable exploitation and destruction of our natural resource base, rising alienation of human capital from productive employment and rising levels of social instability are signs of a social fabric increasingly divorced and insensitive to the welfare and well- being of large sections of humanity. Therefore, it is agreeable to conclude that a t the root of the multiple crisis confronting humanity today is a crisis of values that must be resolved before there can any hope of lasting solutions to the problems facing humanity.
These values express humanity’s most authentic and distinctive features in order to nurture that intrinsically universal cultural soil which makes for fruitful and constructive dialogue. They include shared values of solidarity, expressed though the promotion of justice; the values of peace which is the primary objective of every society; the value of life itself as the most sacred and inviolable earthly reality-for it is not possible to invoke peace and despise life; the value of education which enables regard for one’s own identity with Philosophical Response to Socio -Political a nd Economic Challenges in Africa 85 an understanding of others and respect for diversity; the values of forgiveness and reconciliation necessary for building bridges over the barriers caused by non-communication and misunderstanding, thereby, nurturing the path which leads to peace.
This is the response to any philosophical attempt to mend fences and balance the inequities worldwide as it affects the African continent and its people: It is a universal ambition to build peace among nations and this is possible through forging a coalition of values without borders . Justice, freedom, transparency, honesty, peace, responsible leadership; such values are without borders. They are valid for all human beings - and these values are key for respecting human dignity and promoting human development everywhere on the globe. I am sure that many of us agree that these values are critical to protect, enhance and promote for peace and progress to reign amongst all the peoples of the world in the service of the common good.
Conclusion I conclude this paper with the following proposals for political, social and economic action in Africa and globally: - African and world peace through the Rule of Law. - Alternative dispute resolution and an African Elders Council. - Constitutional democracy and legal protection of citizens. - Economic justice through access to means and resources. - Political decentralization through federalism and federal structures. - Food security through agricultural investments and access to land. - Regional integration of states within and beyond national boundaries. - Free and basic education for all. - Self-reliance through skills acquisition and access to micro-finance. - Formalization of the informal sectors of the economy. - Respect and regard for democratic principles in a multi-party system. - Resource control and fiscal federalism. - Ecological preservation and protection through environmental policies. - Gender justice through empowerment and affirmative action. - Infrastructural development through private public partnerships. - Zero tolerance for corruption at all levels with enforceable laws. - Radical changes in institutions of governance and government. - Culturally rooted sustainable development through religious values. - Back to the roots with respect for family and authentic cultural values. - Non-governmental organizations and civil society actors as watchdogs. - Media presence with ethical and professional communication skills.
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Expectations on Social Infrastruct ures from the Federal Government … 87
Chapter Nine
Expectations on Social Infrastructures from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Year 2002 Budget
Introduction This work is a response to the need to enlighten stakeholders on the expectations of the forthcoming federal Budget. It is one among a number of presentations which wish to:
• Harvest stakeholders’ expectations from the year 2002 Federal Government budget, • Convey stakeholders’ expectations to the Federal Government for consideration and reflection in the year 2002 budget, and • Establish a basis for evaluating the quality of the year 2002 Federal Government budget.
These aims, noble and praiseworthy as they are, seem also ambitious. Can we as stakeholders identify these “right things” that Nigeria may do. Theories abound and are filled with competing values, systems and operations. We have been taught that economics is the science of freedom of choice among opportunities. Tastes are many and satisfying them knows no bounds. Only when there is production in quantity and then in quality could we be sure that human beings are at work and that both supplies and prices are within people’s purchasing range. Production means that labour, land, capital, resources, services and the human person are not idle. In such a situation, the demand and the supply would determine the market and the prices of goods. Aristotle, the ancient Greek thinker described economics as the “management of the household” and the “management of scarce resources” in freedom.
There is a right way of doing things. There are right things to do in order to set Nigeria on a part of sustainable growth. Freedom and a sound economy cannot grow; it cannot even survive in every atmosphere. Freedom needs clean and healthy habits, sound families, common decencies and fundamental respect of human beings for one another. Freedom requires the exercise of conscience. Can there be a free society among citizens who cheat, who do not work hard, who are untrustworthy, who flout the law, who prefer to live
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as slaves, content in their dependency so long as they are fed and entertained? From fidelity to truth, inner liberty is wrested. The taste of the pudding however lies in the eating. Lies have short legs and vice is not sustainable.
Modern thinkers have worked out as neither the ancients nor the medieval philosophers did, that this freedom has three dimensions. It is the three practical principles of the free society; free in its polity; free in its economy; and free in the realm of conscience and inquiry. This is the challenge facing Nigeria. It is the challenge of national development planning which is the sure path to social and economic reconstruction. People centred development and people’s participation in their own development seem key elements in this endeavour. There is also the search for the basic needs approach in satisfying simple people’s wants. Doing first things first must necessarily stand out as an agenda for a developing economy to thrive and to survive the global competition and intrigues of the present. There are no other viable options, if history would be a good measure for our guide. And the proverb has it that “experience is the best teacher”. There is nothing as practical as a good theory. No wonder, when the planned economic system claimed superiority over the liberal market economy, time was only what was needed before the truth surfaced. The claim that communism is morally superior to capitalism, and better for the poor has been proved to be empty. It did indeed pave the way for serfdom. Even for those unsure whether there is a God, a truth is different from a lie.
My aim here is to address the “Expectations on Social Infrastructure from the Federal Government of Nigeria year 2002 Budget.” The time has surely come to ask this question in a serious forum such as this, in order to avoid the continuous drift of the polity and to face the issues that emerge squarely in the face for the common good of our people.
The Stakeholders Stakeholders in Nigeria’s social and political economy are varied and extensive, they include everybody, from the people, the citizenry to the aliens who need Nigeria’s market and potentials both on the African forum and the larger world. They include institutions of the capital markets and financial institutions on both national and international frontiers to the money markets within our shores of whatever shades including private sector businesses, small and medium scale entrepreneurs, community based organizations, micro finance institutions, banks; whether central, government, commercial or community, retailers of financial goods and services, Expectations on Social Infrastruct ures from the Federal Government … 89 consumers of the products of the economy and the manufacturers; policy makers, politicians, law makers, the executive arm of government at the local, state and federal levels as well as the operators and implementers of these policies on behalf of government such as civil servants, the organized labour and the legal and judicial systems which guarantee the rule of law.
They include investors, the traders in the commercial sector, the industrialists, the faith community, the international donors and development agencies, world financial institutions, the research institutes and to a large extent, factors beyond our sovereign boundaries namely, the current trend of globalization of goods, services and values.
Stakeholders are an extensive concept. The word covers the seen and unseen hands in a macro and micro economy. It bears within it a complex relationship because the interest groups are different, the backgrounds are different and the articulations are often contradictory. Without a forum for collaboration, the stakeholders may be the losers due to lack of the principle of solidarity. Concerning the Federal Government of Nigeria national development plan which often is articulated through the annual budget, one needs, in the context of Nigeria;
A rational consistency, principled positions, extensive vision and knowledge of the developments on a global scale and a flexibility that is able to accommodate and yet give orientation, value and ethical primacy. No economy may thrive on the cult of mediocrity, ethnicism and political slippery inconsistency. This is one reason for the budget as a guide.
Defining Responsibilities of Government and Stakeholders Participation in the Economy Nigerians await with great expectation the budget speech with almost breathless patience. Every year, the period around the preparation and presentation of a budget to the citizens of Nigerian appears as a “season of great expectations”. There is great excitement and to some extent uncertainty among the citizenry. Unrealistic and unrealizable hopes are raised. If delayed, lull sets into the market and scarcity and price hikes are consequences. The impression is given that all our problems will evaporate when the budget, seen as Messiah is announced. Yet the facts as we know them in our history tell a different tale. After forty-one years of Nigeria’s history, with national development plans and budgets jettisoned, we are better informed. Contradictions and fluctuations of the budget thrust of the
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previous year are almost like a normal event in Nigeria. Economic policies are raised, jettisoned mid-way during the budget year and even completely contradicted.
If the reading of the budget speech by Mr. President is delayed a little in the month of January or prolonged, the entire life of the nation may even come to a halt. Scarcity and high prices set in to fill the gap of speculation. Upon the budget rests unfortunately and falsely too, the price of garri, rice, yam, fish, suya, food stuff of all sorts, imported material and of course the business of banks, the foreign exchange, the value of the Naira and even travels. Manufacturers, importers, trade unions, civil servants, contractors, builders, students and agents of the financial, social and political fabric of the nation come to an almost grinding halt waiting for the budget as if it is the expected “Messiah”. Travels and other economic and social activity, including the hoarding of fuel and other goods and services depend on the few pages read by Mr. President and the follow up explanations given by the honourable Minister of Finance.
For several years, our country and her citizens have continued to live under the false alarm and tension of the expected budget speech. Many businesses have been ruined in the process and life continued to become harder and harder for our people. Not only that the expected budget does not show drive, insight, economic profundity and consistency; the confusions of the operators, the interpretations given to it and the implementation of the budget proposals remain one of the greatest mirage and illusions which our nation face for the past forty-one years of her post-colonial independence. An example is when a budget speech read in early January of a new year proposes tariff reduction or increment for an item such as imported cars. By midyear, the said tariff may not have become operative because the officers of the Nigerian Customs Service are yet to receive the memo on the operational guidelines of the said budget and the relevant officers and staff of both the federal institutions and others responsible for the budget implementation keep on saying that the budget is ‘on the pipeline’.
The consequence is that the budget vision is not implemented and confusion takes place. Everyone blames everyone, ‘passing the buck’ and it is still surprising to me that no one takes the responsibility of failure in our country. Many suffer, especially the poor. The economy is maladjusted. Investors are made unsure. Government loses credibility and cynicism sets in. Examples abound such as the much talked about ‘National Poverty Eradication Programme’ (NAPEP) and its previous precedents that are failures. My first Expectations on Social Infrastruct ures from the Federal Government … 91 position with regard to expectations from the budget on social infrastructure is to state that we need government to provide for the ‘common good’ of the people. But the people themselves are the original bearers of governmental authority.
The original bearer of governmental authority according to Catholic Social Teaching is “the nation as a whole, that is, the politically unified national group”. The tasks of governmental authority, namely legislation, executive power and administration of justice arise from the end of the state which include:
1. Production and fostering of the moral order. 2. Promoting the welfare of the citizens. 3. Guaranteeing internal security and the rule of law. 4. Guaranteeing external security in the community of nations.
The state however is; “not the presence of God. The state stands in the service of order. It is the supreme guarantor of the common good founded on might and right and power. The power of the state must therefore be uniform, comprehensive, sovereign and coercive. In Nigeria, as in many other countries, government has assumed or rather usurped every imaginable role of the citizenry in our country, creating the impression that individual and collective responsibility of the members of society may not necessarily count. ”
Government is looked upon almost as ‘Almighty God’ for the solution of our myriads of problems providing all amenities. We all want a decent society, and we know that it costs money and other resources to build it.
My thesis is to state that a ‘servant government’ should provide the infrastructure of life, not its superstructure, but should tilt that infrastructure to make it more accessible to those who have fared less well in the market economy or who might for so in the future. To build on the infrastructure remains the individual’s and civil society’s personal and group responsibility. Exercising that responsibility is what gives life meaning. Any attempt to do it for us means that, left to ourselves, we live our lives badly. The first task must, therefore, be to work out what is meant by the infrastructure of life in modern society, what should be left to the individual, to communities and groups and how the infrastructure should be titled.
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Governments, which think it right to control and administer half of a country’s annual income themselves, have probably got the balance wrong . Restoring a proper balance is likely to be the most important social change in our country and will be one change where government has to lead rather than follow. You cannot take away responsibility from the people at the level of their own competence. This is the principle of subsidiarity, much proudly invented and articulated by Catholic Social Teaching. Many western governments have now realized that they have walked to the edge of a cliff and that if they continue as they are, they will fall into a bottomless pit because their promises far exceeded their ability to pay. This is the problem also with Nigeria. As a result of this impasse, every government is being forced to return responsibility to its citizens.
The first step backwards from the edge has been to get rid of all activities, which shouldn’t have been anyway, running businesses, which the private sector could run perfectly, well, and usually better. It helped, of course, that the proceeds from this privatization went into state coffers, reducing the money that they would otherwise have had to borrow or raised from taxes. A servant government must also be under the control of its citizen to be a proper servant. Charles Handy in his much-celebrated book: Hungry Spirit has made a compelling argument concerning the false expectations on government and the right way to do things;
“Information, the right to know what is going on, Involvement, the right to participate in decisions rather than leave it all to ‘them’, and Individuality, the right to certain freedoms and protections from that government are the three essentials of proper citizenship. Governments which say ‘elect us and leave it to us to act, always, in your best interests’ are turning democracy into elected paternalism or, less generously into an elected dictatorship.” 1
Responsibility, which is exercised once every four or five years in a polling booth is so meaningless. Since under that system, citizens cannot make much difference to anything, they might not as well get involved or, if we do, settle for what is best for us alone, not for the country. Apathy and cynicism are the real enemies of democracy. By insulating us from any real responsibility for what happens around us, a paternalistic democracy makes us, literally,
1 Charles Hardy, Hungry Spirit, p.232.
Expectations on Social Infrastruct ures from the Federal Government … 93 careless of others beyond our immediate group. Our ambitions then become too narrowly focused, selfish and improper.
By taking responsibility away from its citizens, our governments are implicitly saying that we cannot be trusted to look after our own lives. We become improvident because we don’t need to be provident with the result that the state is left to do it all, while our irresponsibility is encouraged. When the income upon which government calculated is not there for anyone, citizens suffer for what they could have easily provided for themselves, namely: pensions and old age care, healthcare, education, small and medium scale entrepreneur, small businesses, productive and incentive activities, among many other options. The old proverb is still valid today as it has always been: “God helps those who help themselves .”
What counts as the infrastructure? How much should be left to the people, and how much should governments spend on behalf of the people? This is a complex question and upon its resolution do governments dupe the people they are meant to serve. The responsibility of government is to use some of the riches created by the market, not to make life easy for everyone, but at least to make life possible; not to share out the money but to invest that money in order to build a decent society. You cannot leave it entirely to those who have the money to do the spreading, because many of them won’t, and we have already noted that the money does not trickle down or spread it fast or far enough. But who controls government? This is where the stakeholders voice comes in and any responsible government must listen to the voice of stakeholders. They are the people.
The second step is what is going on now in Nigeria under the Bureau of Privatization of Enterprise, selling off of monopolies formally monopolized by government. They include NEPA, NITEL, BANKS and several other parastatals. It is a step in the right direction. The selloff does not mean hands off regulations by the State. The only conjuring trick is that the customer still pays much the same amount for the goods and services, receives value for money, but the money doesn’t go through the government books and coffers. Normally, it gets lost there, and citizens would be constantly informed, “it is on the pipeline”. The hope for going to private ventures is that the lure of gain for the new managers and stakeholders and shareholders will increase efficiency and the care of customers, a good start, but not revolutionary enough.
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The third step could be more promising, even though it does little to change the government accounts. Taking things like health care and education and provide citizens with a mechanism to choose between the different providers, perhaps by giving them something like vouchers, the equivalent cheques signed by the state, for them to spend on the outlet of their choice. The underlying idea is to turn the providers, be they hospitals or schools or universities into sorts of businesses and so improving their incentives and their efficiency. Money put into specific government health care and educational centres have almost gone into the “drain”, and not much is there to show the amount of resources invested. Whatever it is, call it a government parastatal and the symptoms of “go down the drain” are already set in. Making providers in the system compete can change this. There is no point in responsibility if there is no choice.
The consequences are myriad. It allows the providers to choose the customers they want just as much as it allows customers to choose providers. They may be abused, but this is where the lawmakers can always come in to provide the infrastructure, not the superstructure, the hardware, not the software. There are many practical difficulties but this is the essence of this programme. Transcend the difficulties by daring the risks and the options available. Laudable as it is, to help the poor and the potentially excluded part of the population, it is not enough to pour money over them, by way of investments in schools, hospitals and surrounding environment unless the recipients also have an opportunity to exercise some choice and therefore take some responsibility for their own future.
In any case contractors gain access to some businesses and have an avenue to access national funds, by such contracts, even when the projects are shabbily or even half completed. Corruption thrives in this clime. A choice within limits would enhance the sense of responsibility and major decisions in our lives fostered. But let us try first. The almighty government has been looked upon to provide all available amenities, from the defence of the realm to the provision and care of the infrastructure of the land. Government must carry even our garbage away. This has not assisted social infrastructure, but rather led to the syndrome of dependence.
Expectations on the Budget and Social Infrastructure No one would doubt the fact that part of what is called social infrastructure include the following items and that satisfying them through all possible avenues, that is, creating an ennobling environment for them to be satisfied, remains one of the highest ideals of any budget or even government. These Expectations on Social Infrastruct ures from the Federal Government … 95 basic needs are; food, health, housing, electricity, water, roads, telephones, utilities and infrastructure, education, pensions, security to mention but a few. They are classified as first things First approach and are known, as the basic needs approach to development. It is a fact that in our country, many people do not have enough to eat and have no jobs. They are waiting for government to employ them.
The Federal Government is expected to know everything, do everything, and solve every problem, having usurped much of the resources and income possibilities of the land. This is the first problem. Government must therefore in the budget of year 2002 approach development from the ‘bottom-up’ level by divesting much of its acquired percentages of the national resources and spend more at the levels of the communities, non- governmental organizations, the local and state governments. This is where the people live. One of the most flagrant manifestations of injustice is the growing gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria. The widening gap and the resulting social alienation are increasingly recognized as undeniable facts. The United National Development Programme (UNDP) states that;
“The development models which are perpetuating inequalities cannot be maintained and do not deserve to be maintained.” 2
Christian Social Teaching suggests that a truly developed society is one in which wealth is equitably distributed and each person has a fundamental right to the resources and conditions essential to human development. This is the official position of all the United Nations instruments and declarations, as well as the public opinion of enlightened social and private institutions and religious groups. We are generally aware that in Nigeria, the economy is no longer meeting the basic needs of people. There is widespread poverty, unemployment, hunger and desperation much of which bears eloquent testimony in these phenomena.
In spite of our potential wealth in human and natural resources, many of our youths are uneducated, engage in thuggery and crime and have no access to the good things of this world. It is not only in Nigeria that this happens, in fact, throughout the world, particularly in developing countries. Increasing numbers of economists, social justice groups and NGO’s labour unions and
2 1994 World Report of Human Development.
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churches are denouncing these inequalities produced by the present development models with studies and statistics to support them. Giving some input from the point of social infrastructure and expectations on the stakeholders, particularly the Federal Government, the following points need to be made, but not necessarily in order of importance. They contain the seeds for any meaningful theoretical and practical background upon which the budget that is the national development plans within a given period of the nation’s existence may be guided.
• Development must be based on participation, openness, accountability and co-operation. True development will take place if we eliminate the barriers and change the structures, institutions and attitudes, which maintain flawed development, oppression and exploitation and replace them with new structures and relations likely to foster it.
• Economic growth is not a ‘cure-all-answer’. The false belief that economic growth (an increase in the quantity of goods and services produced) constitutes the main indicator of development and everything must be done to promote growth makes the market to become an end in itself. Important as it may be, sustainable economic and human development is a much broader and larger concept than just economic growth in measuring the impact of the budget on the people.
• Achieving genuine development demands that the global and national economy through its fiscal policies and annual budget and development plans place people first. The basic questions about any budget speech or plan is “how does it benefit the poor and improve their living standard?”
• Budget needs not only planning, monitoring, and evaluation but also implementation and control
• The priority of the budget is to serve the poorest of the poor and make poverty eradication and job creation a priority. This is both a matter of political choice and will.
• Advancing human rights and human dignity. • Security, peace and social tranquillity. Expectations on Social Infrastruct ures from the Federal Government … 97
• Re-distribute resources to benefit all sectors of the society.
• Advocate social and economic policies designed to combat poverty, create productive employment and redistribute resources so that all sectors of the society may benefit and humanity advanced.
Conclusion A federal, state or local government budget, as it is now common in Nigeria to expect annually, may carry with it expectations which it cannot deliver. One may even think whether the system of announcing publicly the annual budget makes any sense. And whether the month of January is the right time to announce a budget for an operative year instead of say October of the preceding year to enable all the stakeholders already adjust on time. Is it not more laudable to have beyond vision 2010 also mechanisms for implementation of 2010? What is the practice in other countries? We have myriads of examples to learn from as a developing and promising nation.
In any case, much of what the budget contains as ambitions are never carried out during the fiscal year and citizens often do not bother. It has been said that if a budget delivered 40 percent of its promises in any given year in Nigeria, then a miracle would be said to have happened. Meanwhile the remaining 60 percent is not accounted for. What happened to it? Did the funds not filter out of the country into oversea’s fat accounts of the same operators of these budgets? How else do we explain corruption in Nigeria?
There is need now to enthrone a mechanism of control of the budget, not simply by government agents themselves (no one can be a judge in one’s own cause), but by stakeholders in the private and non-governmental and faith communities sector, including individuals who may have the clout to research and find the truth about the operations of any given budget. What is freedom if people cannot say the truth? Development is a multi-dimensional people - centred process. It aims to create conditions whereby each human being can realize his or her potential for political, social and economic fulfilment, in harmony with the common good.
The rights, obligations and participation of individuals are central to this process and its objectives. The first priority is the eradication of poverty. This involves empowering people to gain control over their own lives and to obtain the resources required to meet their basic needs without destroying
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the environment. The federal and state and local governments are only a small part of the coalition that is being called for at this forum to have all the stakeholders give their voice to the national economy and the budget, which is just one dimension of developmental goals. People are central, participation is important and implementation and control are paramount measures. There may be other avenues but these appear central:
“Genuine development is a grassroots, bottom-up process, where local communities are the key players. Economic activity should be managed by people and should respect the limitations of a fragile non-renewable environment. The market may be a means to achieve these goals, but it is not an end in itself.” 3
3 Conference on “ Rethinking ” Breton Woods held in Washington DC, June 1994. Training of SAOs and Their Deputies on Aid Management… 99
Chapter Ten
Training of SAOs and Their Deputies on Aid Management and Coordination 1
Concept Note It is the finding of various scientific disciplines and a realization based on sound reason and experience that poverty in our times is a man – made condition and not God determined. If we seriously desire it, poverty can be eradicated, or at the least, reduced to a minimal level. There is no justification or joy to have a world of citizens and subjects who live in abject poverty, without dignity and rights and even without any hope of a brighter future, alongside a world where a few have almost everything.
Governments worldwide have over the years adopted and committed to a number of internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the frontal fight against poverty. These commitments build upon and consolidate the outcomes of the world summit of 1905 that focused on the environment, human rights, population, social development and women.
Today the MDGs provide a common framework for the normative and operational activities of the UN in the field of international development cooperation . As is now clear to many, the world finds itself in a "myriad of crises” ranging from issues related to food security, climate change and energy sources to volatile commodity markets, pressing short falls, and a general lack of clarity on how best to address these various and inter-related challenges. The current economic downturn and financial turmoil add to the complexity of the response needed as they affect the capacity of the international community to achieve the MDGs and to provide for the types of programmes and policies needed to build a more sustainable future.
The European commission through its programme SRIP desires to assist Nigeria's effort at solutions. The concept therefore of international development cooperation becomes all the more important. Development
1 Ike, O. F.; Lead paper presentation to the European Union Support to Reforming Institutions Programme (SRIP); 21st July 2009.
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cooperation can take many forms such as financial and technical assistance, as well as emergency aid. It involves an increasing variety of institutional actors such as governments, international organizations, NGOs, private foundations, faith based organizations, communities, CBOs, and individual effort to self- reliance. Crucial in any effective partnership for development is the involvement of people and people’s organizations directly. It is being gradually recognized that policies that lack the input of the beneficiaries will ultimately prove less effective than those that do.
Ownership, according to Hans Dembowski, Editor-in-Chief of D+C Development and Cooperation, “has been the development buzzword for years. It sounds like a clear principle, but really describes a dilemma. Donor governments know that for a developing country to progress, local decision- makers must map out a reasonable course for its future. However, responsibility for doing so is not automatically taken up. Otherwise, terms like sovereignty, democracy and self- determination would have sufficed."
The concept note will consider the political context, the micro-economic and structural context issues, the national development agenda, priority cross cutting issues, national development agenda and medium term prospects. Recognizing the mutual benefit to be gained through a cooperative partnership towards human and organizational development through training, consultancy and international understanding, this concept note is developed by the lead expert, identifying via social and economic analysis a step towards solutions for the outstanding challenges via ‘see’, ‘judge’, and ‘act’.
SEE: What are actual problems and challenges on ground around the subject of SAOs and aid management?
JUDGE: Why should better paradigms and international best standard be applied in the solutions of the identified problems?
Act: How can the identified problem and the justification for the solution be applied and implemented in practical terms for overall mutual benefits, development cooperation and sustainable aid management and donor coordination?
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When donors are not led by over— arching economic interests or security concerns, they let Official Development Assistance (ODA) hinge on evidence of appropriate ownership. But as many poor countries depend on support, a paradox ensues: those whose responsibility is constantly emphasized cannot make independent decisions. If they want money to keep flowing in, they have to stay in the good books of donors – but not necessarily of their national legislative bodies.
This dilemma cannot be resolved easily. Psychologists' advice in such bewildering double blind situations is to address problems cautiously and consciously. An expression of doing so is the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, in which OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) members spelled out harmonization rules three years ago. They know they must act in coherent and coordinated manner to promote development in other countries.
That is also understood within the European Union. Its member states have, in principle, agreed on a common foreign and security policy. They are members of the OECD, and together they account for the lion's share of global ODA. For all these reasons, the EU has a special role to play as pioneer of harmonization. Whether a glass is half full or half empty is always a moot point. It would be cynical to deny the progress made so far, but it would be naive to be content with what has been achieved.
It is depressing that harmonization is basically making headway where aid recipients are relatively successful. ‘Donor darlings’ like Ghana or Tanzania, however do not worry the international community much. Dealing with places like Afghanistan or Congo is a very difficult matter, and a much more difficult one. And this is where lack of coordination is particularly harmful- if not outright deadly, and support for well understood ownership is most urgent. Where war is raging, or could break out at any time, long term development work is particularly difficult anyway. And the wrangling over who will send in how many troops tends to displace the genuine development debate." 2
The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy in year 2004, and presented to the nation by President Obasanjo, states clearly that NEEDS "is the response to the development challenge of Nigeria... as it will
2 Hans Dembowskl, ‘Fundamental Values, in Development and Cooperation, Donor harmonization and the EU, No. 2, 2008, p.46.
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lay a solid foundation for sustainable poverty reduction, employment generation, wealth creation and value reorientation... The Goal of NEEDS is to mobilize the resources of Nigeria to make a fundamental break with the failures of the past and bequeath a united and prosperous nation to the generation to come." 3
NEEDS is therefore a home-grown reform program involving major stakeholders and has been translated to SEEDS and LEEDS and even applicable to FEEDS. Nigeria is the largest economy in West Africa and has all it takes in human and material resources to become a leading economy within Africa and the world on the long term; but it needs reform and a break with the failures of the past.
EU SRlP The European Union as a major player and development partner has developed the Support to Reforming Institutions Programme (SRIP) so that the ambitions of NEEDS and SEEDS, which is governments commitment to an economic reform agenda is realized with benefits to the Nigerian populace.
Focus SUP training of SAOs and their deputies on aid management and coordination is one of the financing agreement treaties between the European Commission and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Programme plans to achieve two main results: (a) Transparent Budgeting (b)CSO participation in budget with exposure of corruption where applicable.
The Role of SAO's The minister for National Flaming is under the EU/ Nigerian Agreement the NAO- National Authorizing Officer. The Minister has delegated some of his powers to SAOs- State Authorizing Officers appointed in each state of the six focal states: Cross River, Ogun, Jigawa, Anambra, Kano, Yobe.
The role of the SAO's essentially includes: (a) Overseeing the SUP and the EDF projects,
3 Speech by President Obasanjo, 29 th May, 2004, lnternational Development Cooperation Today, Emerging Trends and Debates, p. 3. EU, NO. 2 2008, p. 46.
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(b)Management and Coordination of Donor Assistance in the respective States.
Conditions for Effective SAO Perforce To effectively manage the SKIP project and achieve proper coordination of other donor projects in the state, the SAO's need the following- Knowledge and Skills in Aid Management and Coordination. These include:
• hours to maximize donor assistance to their states; • hours to harmonize the work programmes of different programmes/ projects working in the state; • how to achieve collaboration in the implementation of similar programmes across donors or programmes; • how to prepare and track projects; • how to highlight corruption with C80 participation; • how to improve on reporting standard; • how to share information; • how to achieve sustainability on the long – term. Lead Experts Field Assessment and Proposed Activities This concept note is founded on the cardinal economic and development theory and practice which states that: "failure to plan is planning to fail.” Against the background of a "nearly failed state" saddled with the problems of Nigeria—mention is made in a cursory but summary form of the critical challenges facing Nigeria—inept leadership, corruption, lack of transparency, inefficient infrastructure, weak governance institutions, energy insufficiency, unemployed youths, growing poverty, failed educational and health institutions and structures, the current global financial systems and its challenges, banking sector inadequacies, brain drain, migration of experts, the dependency on oil and gas, mono-economy, the lack of diversification of economic resources including agriculture, the cult of mediocrity and political gangsterism, low human rights record, lack of security and the Niger Delta issues, climate change and environmental challenges, sporadic religious tensions in the northern parts of Nigeria, electoral malpractices and judicial manipulations, overall poverty and systematic injustice in the polity, lack of
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rural development, infrastructure and urban migration with overcrowded cities.
Lead Expert identifies the TOR global objective which is "to increase SAOs effectiveness in donor management and coordination with three specific objectives thus:
(a) To provide SAOs and their deputies with tools for effective Donor Management and Coordination; (b) Build the capacity of SAOs and their deputies on their role in the EDF; (c) Provide an atmosphere for Networking among SAOs.
Programme and Methodology • Participatory Method – See, Judge and Act Baseline Study, • Literature Collection, • Agenda (as submitted), • Time Frame (10 days), 4 days pre-workshop preparation, 2 days workshop, 2 days on Aid Management, 1 days on the role of SAOs on EDF, 3 days for report writing, • Develop Training Material on Aid Management and Coordination, • Facilitate a participatory technical training workshop, • Obtain monitoring and evaluation feedback from participants, • Prepare and minister a pre and post workshop questionnaire to access knowledge gained by participants, • Produce workshop report.
Some Questions for Consideration Following emerging trends and debates on the theme of international cooperation today as published by the United Nations NGLs – Non Governmental Liaison Office, in Geneva and New York, some questions for consideration are raised and they form part of this concept noted for deliberation by the participants.
Training of SAOs and Their Deputies on Aid Management… 105
∑ In aid discussions, how would greater inputs from developing countries, including emerging donors, expand the definitions of principles such as national ownership, mutual accountability and aid effectiveness in general?
∑ How can aid effectiveness be systematically linked to development effectiveness and the achievement of human development, gender equality and other internationally agreed development goals?
∑ What indicators could track progress, particularly on cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, human rights and environmental sustainability, which may be mainstreamed across aid and development strategies, but without targeted funding and requirements for verifiable results?
∑ How can ODA be more effectively integrated into macroeconomic policy choices, within an overall framework of human development and gender equality?
∑ What are the implications for ODA of threats from climate change and food insecurity?
∑ How can development cooperation better support national policy choices and the expansion of policy space?
∑ From a programme country perspective, what does policy space to manage and use ODA look like? Are there basic elements that should be shared internationally?
∑ What should really count as aid? Should tied aid, for example be discounted? Should there be an international standard for concessional lending?
∑ Should conditionalities be replaced by a greater reliance on mutual responsibility, accountability and transparency on the part of donor and programme countries? What would this entail?
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∑ Should an international aid allocation framework be created to direct ODA to countries most in need? What would the elements be? How should aid eligibility be defined?
∑ How should donor countries be held more accountable for providing ODA of sufficient quality and quantity? How can this be compatible with coordination, which could blur lines of accountability for individual donor governments?
∑ What systems need to be put in place to monitor aid predictability and disbursement patterns? How can aid predictability and disbursement be connected to national development objectives? How can microeconomic impacts be mitigated?
∑ Can aid effectiveness agenda move forward without more transparency from donor governments, including the provision of basic data on the amount of money, how it is being spent, and what guides funding allocations?
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Chapter Eleven
Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy - The Case of Nigeria
Corruption - a deadly vice that manifests integrity deficiency: For several years now, the world has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the efforts of Governments, Churches, Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, Corporate Rating Agencies and Social Responsibility Institutions, the Academia, International Agencies, Interest Groups, even Corporations and notable voices from virtually all continents to raise awareness about the negative effects of corruption.
In recent times, many have come to realize that corruption is an issue of grave concern and a serious obstacle to economic growth, democratic culture, national and international stability, good governance and effective implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. Worldwide, it has gradually become an accepted fact by many that 'corruption is a deadly vice'. It has a potentially damaging effect on the welfare of entire nations, therefore the need for understanding its insidious nature.
Paradoxically at the same time, corruption is about ‘the most practiced vice’ in many nations, including Nigeria. In fact, it has been observed that even amongst those who condemn corruption in its manifold forms, hypocrisy holds sway and the same people and institutions practice it in the secrecy of their closets, share in its ill-gotten rewards where there is an opportunity. They unwittingly practice it out of ignorance; cover corruption with philanthropy, feeling morally justified to practice it some even redefine corruption to exclude their nefarious conducts. Benefits from corruption underline one common characteristic which classify practitioners of corruption everywhere, namely Integrity Deficiency’.
Added to this reality is the matter of concern to people who are engaged with morality in the public domain, that the most damaging hazard around the topic of corruption is the growing sense of cynicism in many countries, especially in Africa as elsewhere, almost to the level of despair; that nothing can be done about our unenviable credentials of corruption. This general indifference of the populace to the virtue of integrity or their helplessness at manifestations of its
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lack, are too numerous to mention. But the consequences of these are most damaging, as evident in the economic, social, cultural and political domain.
Poverty is widespread. Unemployment is high. Standards of life are eroding in quality for the majority of people. Youth and women are victims. The environment is damaged as migration of peoples remain staggering both within nations – from the rural to urban areas, and internationally, from the less industrialized nations to the more developed economies. Crime is on the increase. Traditional and human values are fast diminishing despite many positive efforts to the contrary. In the case of Nigeria, the failure of the democratic and electoral process to produce free and fair election results leads to an undermining of the constitution.
The belief that corruption can be eradicated quickly, easily and permanently inevitably leads to false expectations that results in disappointments and distrust. It must be understood therefore that curbing corruption requires political will, public confidence, adequate time, resources, dedication and integrity. Moreover, efforts cannot stop once corruption has been identified and controlled. Localities will have to continue to build integrity and to maintain vigilance. Thus, fighting corruption will become a continuous feature of civil societies, national institutions, communities and private agencies.
Of all the virtues that edify and build up a nation, integrity is the foremost, for it is an all-round virtue. Fidelity to law, observance of due process, respect for the rule of law are common indices that show a 'culture of integrity' for which traditional, pre-colonial African societies were known to excel in their observations of the customary laws of their ancestors due mainly to their intact nearness to the earth and the presence of the 'divine milieu' in daily life. In modern societies however, this has changed.
In the words of the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences commission (ICPC):
A nation’s fidelity to law can be measured by the level of its respect for its constitution, the extent to which it practices constitutionality in governance and the degree of alertness of the people regarding the constitution. Using these as benchmarks, it cannot be confidently asserted that in Nigeria, there is a culture of fidelity to law. 1
1 Honourable Justice Emmanuel O. Ayoola, many Facets of Corruption, ICPC Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy 109
Otherwise, how else do we explain the lack of integrity at the slightest opportunity where people sell their votes for food and money, making nonsense of the democratic process? How can one explain the vandalization of national infrastructure that is essential to the welfare and for the benefit of all? How can one explain examination mal-practices? How can one explain popular human shield often erected around corrupt leaders whenever such are accused of corruption?
Integrity starts with a spirit of obedience to laws. Corrupt practices often are a breach of the laws of the land, be it traditional customs and practices or even legislations and edicts passed.
The damage corruption does and the viciousness of its effect on society are too numerous to enumerate. Lawlessness is a manifestation of lack of integrity. Often, many do not realize that integrity start with a spirit of obedience to laws. Corrupt practices often are a breach of the laws of the land, be it traditional customs and practices or even legislations and edicts passed by governments. Disregard of due process is a manifestation of lack of integrity, just as the lack of commitment to values is another symptom of lack of integrity.
For these reasons, there is increased interest and need for co-ordinated national and international anti-corruption legislation, as well as policies and measures that are multidisciplinary and action - oriented to reduce corruption to a barest minimum; thereby curbing the culture of impunity imposed on humanity by the practitioners and beneficiaries of corruption.
2. Definitions of Corruption and Historical Facts Around Corruption There is no generally accepted definition of corruption. The attempt made here is to seek to clarify the essence of corruption by looking straight at reality without any local or traditional legal lenses. By adopting this empirical approach, one arrives at a wider consensus as to which acts are intrinsically harmful to society and should therefore be prevented and punished. Indeed, the lack of consensus on what types of behaviour or conduct should be considered as questionable, illegal and corrupt differ.
Monograph Series, No 3, Abuja, Jan 2007, p. 6.
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The UN Anti-Corruption Tool Kit accepts this lack of a universal definition where it states that “Conventional wisdom is that there is no single, comprehensive, universally accepted definition of corruption... Attempts to develop a definition of corruption invariably encounter legal, criminological and, in many countries, political problems. It was reported that when the negotiations of the United Nations Convention against corruption began early in 2002, one option under consideration was not to define corruption at all but to test specific types of acts of corruption." 2
In its Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, the UN outlines some of the elements that make up for what must generally be understood as corrupt practices, therefore, qualifying for a sort of definition under the following:
(i) the promise, offering or giving to a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions;
(ii) the solicitation or acceptance by a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her function. "3
The Global Programme Against Corruption (GPAC) held a session of the Group of Experts on 13 th and 14 th of April 2000 in Vienna and prepared a UN Anti-Corruption Tool Kit which summarized the many definitions of corruption as simply "the misuse of (public) power for private gain. " 4 • Bribery- involves the promise, offer or giving of any benefit that improperly affects the actions or decisions of a public official; • Embezzlement - theft of resources by persons entrusted with authority
2 UN Anti-Corruption Tool Kit P. III. 3 Cf. UN Anti-Corruption Tool Kit, p. 10. 4 The GPAC identified Corruption as an action that materializes in different forms and includes the following (cf pages 10 - 12), namely:
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and control over anything of value; • Fraud - any behaviour designed to trick or fool another person or entity for one's own or third party's benefit; • Extortion - forcing a person to pay money or other valuables in exchange for acting or failing to act. This coercion can be under the threat of physical harm, violence or restraint, • Abuse of Power - using one ’s vested authority to give undue preferential treatment to any group or individual or to discriminate against any group or individual ; • Exploiting a Conflict of Interest/Insider Trading - engaging on transactions or acquiring a position or commercial interest that is incompatible with one's official role and duties for the purpose of illegal enrichment; • Receiving an Unlawful Gratuity, Favour or Illegal Commission - a public official. receives anything of value from others wishing to do business with the government ; • Favouritism - the assignment of services or resources according to family ties, party affiliation, tribe, religion, sect and other preferential groupings; • Nepotism - a form of favouritism whereby an office holder with the right to make appointments, prefers to nominate his/her relatives for positions within the public administration; • Illegal contributions - occurs when political parties or governments in power receives money in exchange for non-interference with the entity or group making the contribution. It is closely related to bribery.
These are only but a limited version of the many definitions of the faces of corruption. Philosophically and theologically x-rayed, the topic of corruption assumes a metaphysical dimension, for here, corruption is identified as indicative of the human condition of decadence which shows weakness of the flesh and mind against the spirit, the contradiction of rational choices vis-a-vis easier alternatives as in the biblical ‘fallen Adam’ 5 which gives a picture of the human being as made of earth; therefore he is breakable, fragile, decadent and of weakness in nature.
5 Genesis Chapter 2.
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It is this aspect of a weak human nature that searches for a life made easy, for irrational actions that shortcuts procedures and leads to cheap wealth, fame and positions, often achieved through breaking of the rule of law, indeed, acting outside of the moral, natural and supernatural laws which govern the universe. These interdisciplinary studies of psychology, philosophy, ethics and theology have thus arrived at the conclusion that acting:
outside of the law, human beings are generally susceptible and prone to weaknesses, such that irrational behavioural patterns occur and are 'contemplated upon, which undermine due process, negates virtue, promotes egoistic and selfish behaviour- all leading to decadence and ultimately to what society describes as corruption.’ 6
One can however generally agree that from the many voices and based on the studies of experts, some lessons for history can be found in many cultures which agree that corruption is a universal disease. Corruption is found and practiced in Africa and in every other country of the world. The misuse of power for private gain is a phenomenon endemic everywhere and in virtually all countries of the world (United Nations Manual on Anti- Corruption Policy, May, 2001). Recent corruption cases exposed in the World bank, the United Nations, Transnational and Multinational Corporations such as Enron in the USA, Siemens, Banks, and the big scandals of large global players and accounting firms have shown that the misuse of public power for private gain can occur in any society or organization, even where there are well laid checks and balances.
Solutions to the problems of poverty and matters concerning economic growth cannot be achieved alone through poverty alleviation measures without a broader, integrated and holistic strategy for change. Furthermore, it must be asserted that left unchecked, corruption will openly increase and make the poorest and least educated poorer. Where personal risk and punishment are minimal, the risk of corruption naturally increases. Therefore, raising awareness without adequate and visible enforcement will lead to cynicism among the citizenry and possibly increase the incidence of corruption.
6 Ike, O. Unpublished paper at International Conference on 40 Years of Gaudium et Spes , Enugu, 2005. Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy 113
Since a country’s public institutions and agencies do not work in isolation, there is need for an integrated and transparent system of checks and balances designed to achieve accountability abusing the various arms of government, disperse power and limit opportunities for conflicts of interests and abuse of power for gain. Without public confidence in the anti- corruption policies and measures, many genuine efforts at curbing this vice may be viewed as mere political showcasing. 7
3. Corruption in Nigeria - Threat to Democracy and Market Economy With a population of over 140 million people, Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and also one of its richest in human, natural and mineral resources. The history of this great country peopled by multi- lingual, multi- religious and multi-ethnic nationalities is one that has been considered by various studies. 8 Nigeria became a colony of the British at the height of its imperialism during the colonial era in the mid-19 th Century and was amalgamated into one country in 1914, gaining independence from the British in 1960 as a Republic with a Federal character.
In less than 50 years since its independence, Nigeria has changed its Constitution several times, from a regional to a parliamentary, to a Federal presidential structure; suffered one of the most brutal fratricidal wars (Biafra civil crisis) on the continent of Africa (1968 - 1970), a war that led to the death of millions of innocent children, women and men, due to malnutrition and threatened the very foundations of the fragile unity of the country, as it challenged the composition of Nigeria and the perceived injustices were inherited from British colonialism. The country has experienced several military coups, some of them bloody; engaged in civilian elections that was guided by democratic principles even though these elections were in some cases rigged and challenged in law courts and has emerged from all these experiences still a united but fragile country that continues to bear hope for the African continent and its peoples. Unfortunately, the potential and real wealth of the nation has not been translated into reality in the daily lives of the majority of the citizens and peoples who inhabit the country.
7 Peter Langseth, Helping Member State Build Integrity to Fight Corruption, Vienna 2001. 8 Ike, O.F / Edozien Nnoli N; Understanding Africa Traditional Legal Reasoning, Jurisprudence and Justice in Igboland, CIDJAP, Enugu, 2001.
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The available statistics according to the UNDP Human Development Index has consistently shown that with per capita income falling significantly to about USD 300 between 1960 and year 2000 (well below the Sub-Saharan average of USD 450), 53.6 percent of Nigeria’s population are living below currently universally acceptable figures of poverty line (UNDP Studies). It is an obvious fact that Nigeria has been bedevilled with weak economic and political governance failures, the major cause of which is CORRUPTION that has resulted into some of the highest levels of poverty in the world. Indeed, it is a known fact that corruption which manifests itself in weak governance and patronage based politics has fuelled unproductive public spending and investment in the education, health, agricultural sectors and therefore threatens the attainment of any goals of the world community, including the Millennium Development Goals for year 2015.
The paradox is that Nigeria is suffering amidst plenty despite all the huge human, natural and financial resources that she is blessed with. In thirty years (1975 - 2005) Nigeria generated an estimated USD 320 billion from oil revenues, some of which was invested in infrastructures and services provision without a commensurate boost in the real sector. The reality is that much of the funds went to corruption and into private pockets. International stakeholders, particularly military soft and hardware dealers in the USA and the United Kingdom manipulate, indeed, force the country to purchase military hardware and push up defence spending that make the expenditure on defence the highest in Nigerian; budget over several years, even though the country is not at war and has no neighbours threatening it.
Expenditures on education, health, social services and Agriculture continue to rate low on the budget. Government officials who refuse to comply are removed from office either through a military coup or other thumped up conspiracy charges. Thus, military equipment purchased that are not used, not needed and not priority for the nation at a time poverty and corruption continues to thrive in the country.
Access to safe drinking water is a mirage for over 72 million Nigerians who have no water. Yet is has been shown that much funds sunk into water projects were diverted due to corrupt practices and the product was never delivered to the people. These corrupt monies are saved in European, American and Arabian banks safely whilst the country continues to suffer. Indeed, attempts to recover funds stolen by the Abacha Government of Nigeria have resulted in deliberations between Nigerian Government and Swiss Banks for over a decade. Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy 115
The facts on ground show that about 10 million Nigerian school-age children are out of schools and many of them are girls, whilst, about 43 percent Nigerians cannot read or write (60 percent of these are women). Nigeria is one of the 90 countries in the world that have missed the 2005 gender MDG disparity in the enrolment of school children. Compared to boys, girls face many constraints in their attempt to access and benefit from education. The ratio is still as high as 1: 3 in the states of northern Nigeria. Furthermore, one out of all Nigerian children die before the age of five, while 704 out of 100,000 Nigerian women die during childbirth. The prevalent rate of the HIV/AIDS infection is 4.5 percent and women are the more vulnerable to the predicament. They often care for their sick parents, family members and consequently are absent from school or drop out altogether.
Annual budgets which are hardly tracked keep on repeating the same items yearly for even a decade and people hardly ask. Agriculture is grossly neglected and farmers in rural areas neither purchase equipment nor obtain fertilizers to produce food. Yet, corruption watch has unveiled the fact that for the supply of fertilizer in year 2008 alone, only 3 companies out of 327 were licensed to import and distribute 650,000 metric tons of fertilizers worth 63 billion Naira to the farmers across the country. It has since been discovered that these 3 companies lack the capacities to deliver, and the Minister in charge of Agriculture went ahead to qualify them. This action of a public official jeopardizes farmers’ productivity and makes the nation import food. It threatens sustainable livelihoods of people and by extension, the food security programme of Nigeria, besides throwing many into poverties. The minister is still active on his desk and has not had to answer for this.
Current in the news is the scandal and corruption in the Energy and Power Sector. The National Assembly and the Presidency has made it known that a whooping sum of USD 16 billion was purportedly spent on power generation and equipment between 1999 and 2007. Yet there is no corresponding result to show for it as thousands of businesses and people suffer still under erratic and non-functional electricity supplies. Of course, the energy scam is the result of corruption and one of the companies benefiting from the payments for undelivered services is a German firm, an indication that corruption and its dimensions are both transnational and Trans cultural and to a large extent, Africa's corruption is encouraged by dubious international collaborators who keep the stolen monies in their safe bank accounts knowing quite well that they are stolen assets, albeit such activities, covertly and overtly encourage public officials to steal and supply goods and
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equipment that are overvalued, contracts over-inflated, and jobs not executed paid out far beyond contractual agreements.
In the context of Nigeria and the dimensions of how corruption affects also the market and the economy, one must mention the effect of money laundering. Money laundering and corruption seem to be treated as different problems. The media frequently links money laundering to illicit drugs sales, tax evasion, gambling and other criminal activities. When politicians accept the idea that lack of opportunity and deterrence are major factors helping to increase corruption, it follows that when ill - gotten gains are difficult to hide, the level of deterrence is raised, the risk of corruption is reduced.
Poverty in Nigeria is not God determined. It is manmade and much of it is due to the consequences of ‘ centralized and democratized corruption’ a cliché for official and unofficial corruption within the polity, a system that seems to pervade the polity and refuses to be eradicated. As Archbishop John Onayiekan put it in a recent publication:
There is a growing sense of cynicism in the land almost to the level of despair that nothing can be done about our unenviable credentials of corruption. The Transparency International has always rated us very low in their scale. Whether one agrees with their criteria or not, the fact remains that we really have little to be proud about as a nation in terms of honesty and integrity in our land. 9
He draws an anatomy of corruption and circles its reality around four key areas in Nigeria, namely:
a) 'Outright Stealing' which is a universal phenomenon for which there is a fifth commandment "Thou shall not steal" in the Bible. Here, people try to take what does not belong to them;
b) 'Official Corruption' where public funds are misappropriated and embezzled by civil servants and public officials through for example, inflated contracts in collaboration with both foreign and local firms and other players, following 'due process' yet undermining the system and the people’s wealth;
9 Onayiekan, J; Endemic Corruption in Nigeria; Any way out? ICPC Monograph Series, No.8 2007, p. 4. Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy 117
c) 'Bribery' , given in order to receive services that is not deserved, and bribery that is forced out of a victim (extortion) pursuing legitimate rights;
d) 'Political corruption' where rules and regulations are laid aside by political office holders, misusing and abusing their office to enrich themselves and their parties and cronies with public wealth and often, with impunity.
4. Conclusion: the way out It must be mentioned that various traditional Nigerian cultures generally abhor stealing, damage to the common good and acts of corruption. The moral norms of traditional and indigenous people used a set of taboos and religious sanctions to discipline groups or persons who flouted the common good and engaged in corrupt practices in their communities. These codes still exist today in many villages and corruption is seen to be least in villages and more as one enters the townships; so that the more modern the settings are, the more corruption there seems to be.
If corruption was abhorred in traditional society and considered a vice, punished as it were with stringent measures, there is need to re-visit cultural values and family systems that seem to guarantee a virtuous society. Here, the role of education starting from the family, village good governance structures, religious institutions and leaders all of which promoted the adherence to the law and to a virtuous life seemed to have worked and therefore needs to be rediscovered and promoted. Therefore, the first way out of the culture of corruption is to reinforce and re-invigorate traditional and cultural values that encouraged good behaviour in private and public life.
Furthermore, there is need for leaders of political, religious, cultural and social groups to denounce corruption and show some decency of belief and lifestyle that would establish the much needed good example for a virtuous society to thrive. Recently, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Umaru Yar'Adua in a widely publicized newspaper said,
"Our goal is to make it apparent to all Nigerians that from the President to the lowest official, nobody can disregard the law and get away with it: Our problem has never been laws or regulations on issues of corruption. The problem has been the enforcement of these laws and regulations. We reached a situation where
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disrespect for laws and established regulations became a status symbol, but I am now insisting that whether you are a president, governor or a mere office clerk, all your actions must flow from the laws that govern your office. We must root out the culture of impunity by obeying the rule of law at all levels and for all persons.” 10
This is the type of position by the Head of State of a nation like Nigeria, which if meant seriously, is the type of statement that initiates a revolution that helps anti-corruption efforts. It makes clear the fact that in fighting corruption therefore, one is effectively fighting one of the known root causes of poverty in Nigeria which indeed is a threat to a stable political environment and a stable market economy. Fighting corruption in all its manifestations becomes an agenda for the survival of a nation and also of the common good in both its local and international linkages.
This explains why it must be stated that there are positive and encouraging efforts in Nigeria to tackle corruption headlong. The Federal Government of Nigeria has set up Agencies to fight corruption and established them by law. One of them is the "INDEPENDENT CORRUPT PRACTICES AND OTHER RELATED OFFENCES COMMISSION" (ICPC) which has been legislated upon by the national house of Assembly and passed into law known as "The corrupt practices and other related offences Act 2000'". Other Agencies are the CODE OF CONDUCT BUREAU; the "ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION" (EFCC) and other CIVIL SERVICE RULES AND REGULATIONS set up to equally tackle corruption at all levels. There is the Judiciary, the Police, Agencies of the Secret service and Intelligence Services all set up to complement other efforts by government.
In Nigeria since 1998, the Catholic Bishops Conference composed a Prayer against Bribery and Corruption in Nigeria, which is said in all the Churches during the liturgy daily and all over the country. This religious and pastoral effort has turned out to be a great moral and ethical revolution, as it has conscientised citizens - Christians, the laity, the politicians, economic and leading financial services conglomerates, corporations and practitioners at high and low levels within the market and in society that Corruption is a deadly vice that manifests integrity deficiency.
10 Daily Sun, Friday, April 4 th 2008.
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The greatest threats however to an effective fight against corruption and therefore poverty eradication include: low political will; misplaced priorities by various levels of government; poor management of resources; lack of transparency and accountability, weak industrial base; lack of trade justice; limited and conditional aids packages by industrialized nations; strict compliance by government to conditionalities imposed by international finance institutions, to mention but a few.
The following conclusions which have also been made by the United Nations Anti-Corruption Policy as contained in the Anti-Corruption Tool Kit (p. 16) needs to be repeated here as they concretely respond to the facts of anti- corruption policies and actions by governments and peoples:
1. It takes integrity to fight corruption. Any successful anti-corruption effort must be based on integrity and credibility. Where there is no integrity in the very system designed to detect and combat corruption, the risk of detection and punishment to a corrupt regime will not be meaningfully increased. Complainants will likely not come forward if they perceive that reporting corrupt activity exposes them to personal risk.
2. Building integrity and credibility takes time and consistency. It is fair to say that, in the eyes of the public, most international agencies have not demonstrated sufficient integrity to fight corruption. These agencies have not accepted that integrity and credibility must be earned based upon “w alk rather than talk". The true judges of whether or not an agency has integrity and credibility are not the international agencies themselves but rather the public in the recipient country.
3. It is important to involve the victims of corruption in any plan aimed at reduction. Most donor-supported anti-corruption initiatives primarily involved only the people who are paid to fight corruption. Very few initiatives involve the people suffering from the effects of corruption. It is therefore critical to do more or what International Commission against Corruption ICAC in Hong Kong has done over the past years. For example, the ICAC holds face to face awareness raising workshops with almost I percent of the population every year (Cf. www.icac.org).
4. Identifying and recovering stolen assets is not enough. According to the New York Times (February 7 th 2001), as much as USD I trillion in
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criminal proceeds is laundered through banks worldwide each year, with about half flowing through USA banks. In developing countries such as Nigeria, this can be translated into USD 100 Billion stolen by corrupt regimes over the last 15 years 11 . Even if Nigeria, for example, receives the necessary help to recover its stolen assets, reasonable people would be hard pressed to advocate its return back into a systemically corrupt environment without trying to first increase the risk, cost and uncertainty to corrupt politicians who might again try to loot the national treasury’.
Finally, all eyes must be at alert for the old Latin proverb, it stated thus:
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" meaning, "Who is going to watch the watchmen”.
11 Financial Times, July 24, 1999. Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response 121
Chapter Twelve
Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response 1
1. Introduction The word violence by dictionary definition is the illegal, immoral and unethical exercise of physical force; an act of intimidation by the show or threat of force, whose import is of very dire consequences and inflicts pain or abuse to the rights and privileges of the victim. Violence thus has many faces: physical, psychological, subtle, overt, social, spiritual, economic, cultural, environmental, political, external, internal, silent and international. The unmitigating spate of violence we notice worldwide characterizes the inability of mankind to settle problems and misunderstandings maturely; thus, the use of violence as a tool for settlement.
Theologians would talk about the human predicament of sin, which is at the root cause of man’s failure to live in peace with another. Seen in secular or theological or even in scientific lenses, violence is a reality among humans. The old Romans are even quoted to have said: "If you want peace, prepare for war”. Today, this adage has no more place because with wisdom and added experience, behind every violence is the presence of injustice. Thus the Catholic adage attributed to Pope Paul VI at the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council: " Si vis pacem cole iustitiam.” “That is: If you want Peace work for Justice ”.
The dimensions of violence in today’s Nigeria and the widening of frontiers of violence, leads us to the topic: HOT SPOT NIGERIA which is traceable to some extent as experts tell us, to the intrusion of the colonial spectre into traditional African societies. In ancient times, people respected and obeyed the guidelines led down by ancestral norms, cultural values, traditional norms and rules which guided the Nigerians in ancient culture. Society was smaller. People had order. Life was scared. Life had also a meaning. God and religion were central to society. Freedom meant responsibility. The family and society guided their excessive members who were prone to misbehaviour. Shame had place. Truth meant life. Wealth was seen only as a tool for service
1 Ike, O. F.; Paper presented at the Joint Conference on Church and Development Workshop.
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to the larger society. The elders were respected. Children, men, women, entire nature, the waters, trees, animals all these had a place in mythology, traditional religion and history that kept balance in the world, and therefore to the role and place of man in it.
Pre-colonial Nigeria was forcibly amalgamated by the colonial conquest of Nigeria and her many nationalities, numbering today over 374 tribes and languages. This colonial intrusion did not consider the facts on ground. Colonialism and its consequences, namely neo-colonialism, imperialism, militarism, materialism, communism and economic prebendalism changed all this and meted out on the various nationalities that inhabit Nigeria within 100 years, a new outlook with values, some of them western, alien and corresponding to the Machiavellian theory of ‘ Might is Right ’.
Since 1960 when Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain, the cracks at the foundation of the nation due to the errors of colonial structures and the aberration of the Nigerian experiment surfaced. Violence on a larger scale has come to stay with the natives, sometimes with even unquantifiable primitive and local logic, added to the methods so well learnt from the colonialists, namely the policy of ‘ Divide and Rule’ . Power has become the new game, in whatever shape. This struggle for power has meant that whether it is under the civilian regimes, or under the military, violence has grown to become a national issue of great concern. Yet, the Nigerian human being like all peoples the world over, are fundamentally peaceful. Violence is antithetical and does no one good. in fact, under violence, all are losers.
Surprisingly, the demise of military rule did not bring to an end the history of conflicts and violence in Nigeria. Daily we are confronted by the grim realities of a polity that is soaked in conflict, which often escalates to the point of violence. Today, violence is a grim reality in Nigeria. Whether in the social, cultural, economic, and more in the political scene, we witness abundant indices of conflict and violence. And their consequences stay for many years in the psyche of the victims, causing trauma and destruction at all levels, whichever way one would like to consider the phenomenon. In the military era, pockets of resistance and agitations leading to conflict and violence were usually met with strong opposition from military dictatorship. Conflicts and violence usually occurred to the disadvantage of the civilians who were more of punching bags of military brutality and mercilessness.
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2. The advent of democracy: The return of democracy on May 29 th 1999 tried to alter the situation slightly but not entirely. The people’s understanding of democracy, a government of the people for the people and by the people, encouraged them to be outspoken and to exercise their freedom of expression. This freedom came with a renewed agitation for a reclaim of rights and privileges forfeited to military’s highhandedness. And beyond this, there are also other areas of subjugation, incarceration, intimidation and abuse. Democracy has come with its own logic of violence, yet, with the rule of law, this can be tamed. Until then however, the problem of conflict and violence is real, continuous, persistent and pervasive in Nigeria. We are witnessing a transition to democracy. This is why every support must be given to Nigeria to sustain the trend. The opposite would be rather imagined than real. If others made it to freedom and democracy, why not Nigeria?
3. Gratitude It is a gratifying note that conflict management and violence prevention have become generally accepted principles in the European practice of law, particularly in German political fields of foreign affairs and development co- operation. In particular, we are grateful to the Joint Conference Church and Development (GKKE), to Misereor, the Justice and Peace Organs, the Political, Economic and Social Actors and other person of good will for deciding to set up a political dialogue programme in order to discuss the prerequisites, opportunities and limits of conflict management and violence prevention focusing on Nigeria. This is the real time for such a venture. We assume that this is done, no doubt, to avoid disastrous experiences such as those of Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, etc.
Instead, there is emerging with your assistance, a new way of thinking to promote adequate and speedy management of conflict and crises prevention. In short your organization "intends to promote the peace skills of foreign and development policies” (Hot Spot Nigeria, P.1). Catholic Institute for Development Justice and Peace (CIDJAP) Enugu shares this vision and desires to collaborate fully with you in this enterprise. Our wealth of experience in conflict prevention, detection, monitoring, management, resolution and reconciliation speaks for itself in the local milieu.
4. The Challenge There can be no meaningful development if the threats posed by conflict and violence are neglected. In fact, "the seriousness of violence-prone situations often go unnoticed until it is too late to make timely political efforts towards peaceful
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conflict management” (invitation Letter, by GKKE to participate in this discussion P.1). As a result of the disastrous conflicts and wars, which have been on the world stage in Europe, Africa and other parts of the world, conflict and related issues are now given increased attention. As a matter of fact, the stated objective, which is the major challenge now is "to make the German Government aware of issues related to the effective promotion of development, justice and peace at a worldwide scale”.
5. Nigeria It is providential that your organization has decided to focus its attention on Nigeria. This is most timely when one realizes that all the indicators confirm a potentially explosive situation. Nigeria is really the next hotspot of conflict and violence, literally sitting on a keg of gunpowder ready to explode at the slightest provocation. The ongoing Urhobo/Ijaw/ltshekiri crisis at the Warri oil rich regions of Nigeria and what is scorching some parts of the Delta State as well as the restive situation in the other parts of the Nigeria, North, West, East and South are all pointers to this.
This concern becomes more meaningful against the backdrop of the fact that developments in Nigeria hold great significance for Africa and the world at large. Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world with a teeming population of nearly one hundred and thirty million people. The land is one of the largest in Africa, about 923,768 square kilometres. it is said that one of every five Africans is a Nigerian. As the 6 th world largest exporter of crude oil and many other rich mineral deposits, its strategic importance cannot be overemphasized. Furthermore, the fallouts of a colonial amalgamation, which lumped over 374 ethnic nationalities into one federation, many of which are miles apart in culture, language and religion provided a fertile ground for the emergence of mutual suspicion, which has been a great catalyst to conflict and violence.
Religion in this situation is most at time employed in the service of conflict involving Christians and Muslims. As the biggest Christian—Muslim country in the world, with equal representations of both religions, almost on a 50— 50 basis, and each numbering over 50 million people, Nigeria has an immense symbolic function for the relationship between other Christians and Muslim beyond Nigeria. There is a permanent climate of tension hanging around with a potent threat to the survival of the people and the nation, waiting each time to burst into violence. Indeed, Nigeria’s status regarding the safety of Africa and the world cannot be over-emphasized. in the words of Karl Maier "Nigeria’s influence extends well beyond Africa...lf Nigeria remains trapped in the Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response 125 quicksand of political malaise, economic decline and ethnic rivalry the world will be worse off for it” (Karl Maier, This House has Fallen, P. xxxi).
6. Road to Violence — Colonial Past It has been said many times over, but this truth needs another re-echo here that Nigeria, as a nation was founded on a shaky past. The boarder lines were not drawn around previously existing relationship between people with cultural affinity but in faraway Berlin in 1885 to suit the interest of Europeans without any regard to the future of the nation. Today, several previously warring and incompatible ethnic groups have been clamped together into this nation. There is a gradual but continuous erosion of cultural values, which is the most sustainable in people’s lives. The colonialists reduced traditional institutions to the barest minimum and definitely killed them. Local chiefs, age—grades, town councils, women and youth groups have been played down and supplanted, leaving behind a cultural vacuum without a credible alternative.
There is need in every institution of a clear leader. Can the blind lead the blind? Daily these numerous cultural nationalities struggle for domination and control of the vast economic resource in the country. This breeds friction, crisis and violence. Fear of further social and political domination increase the general feeling of social unrest and tension awaiting explosion in the form of conflict and violence. And the national cake, baked long ago, is getting smaller and smaller. Each group wants its chunk of the cake.
7. Modernization, Immigration, Unemployment and Alienation With colonization came modernization and the emergence of the dichotomy between Urban and rural areas. This in turn brought about the culture of immigration of youth to the urban areas in competition for the scarce resources of the country. Nationally the new interaction brings in a spirit of suspicion and envy, which boils over into violence at the slightest provocation. At stake is the principle of survival of the fittest- a sort of rat race if one ever gets to drive through the streets of Lagos. The mad rush for township life is accompanied by alienation, despondency, desperation and general feeling of insecurity for the citizens in search of economic wellbeing, discovering only poverty and frustration in return.
So many are lacking in requisite qualification to compete favourably in a technological and sophisticated society such as this. Even for the qualified, there is not much jobs available, as government has failed to live up to the challenge of job creation and wealth generation. There is therefore the
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abundance of unemployed youth roaming the street daily. These become convertible materials and willing tinder for the fire of conflict and violence. The cities are grown to the brim with so many of the youth unemployed, and managing to eke out existence with much pain and difficulty.
What begins as a personal conflict escalates into a national calamity when these youth clashes on cultural, ethnic, economic, political and/ or religious grounds. in any case, a hungry man is an angry man, so says the main-road proverb, and there is always something to clash about. The growing spate of armed robbery; the commonality of arson and violent demonstration are all testimonies of a polity overheated by conflict and violence especially with the youth at the centre.
8. Military Coups, Wars, Murder and a rising Culture of Violence In 43 years of independence history, Nigeria has witnessed more than 10 coups d’etat during which governments were ousted and overthrown by military dictatorship with enormous bloodshed, desecration of life and heavy loss in economic resources. For 30 years, out of the 43 years of independence, the military have ruled this country spreading terror, death and the culture of violence everywhere. The struggle for power among the military plunged the nation into a bloody civil war in which about 1 million Nigerians perished from 1967 — 1970. People still live in traumatized conditions because of the effect of the war including those who were plunged into poverty and hopelessness because they've lost their dear ones and breadwinners.
Till date Nigerians are held hostage by the military that have spread their odious influence on all the facets of the society, always with an assurance of conflict and violence. Politicians have exacerbated the situation by employing terrible measures in order to win some advantages over others. Some of them employ the services of thugs to whom are distributed arms for the protection of the politicians and intimidation, even sometimes assassination of opponents.
The just concluded April and May 2003 elections have proved that violence is not far, in fact it is not a monopoly of the military. It has become a basic characteristic of Nigerian partisan politics, as attested to by reports from monitors and observers, some of whom were from the European Union. Not less than 100 persons lost their lives in inter—party struggles during the recent elections in April 2003. Many were wounded, while useful properties such as houses, cars and farmlands were set ablaze. Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response 127
9. Foreign influences The shaky foundation upon which the colonial masters founded Nigeria has been having a negative effect on its stability, development and growth. And till now, that influence has not abated. True, the colonial powers have handed over power to indigenous Nigerians; but the fact is that their influence is still spread all over the place. The basis of their interest has shifted from land and territorial acquisitions to natural resources of the erstwhile colonial lords with which they fuel their industries and economies back home in their countries. For instance, the United States, which is the major trading partner with Nigeria, plans to increase its oil import from 9 to 15 in a few years’ time. Not bad. But the income does not trickle down. Not America's fault; yet, the big business is now involved in the violence factors in Nigeria.
Therefore, their interest does not lie primarily, although it could be contingent, in securing human rights or to maintain stability, rule of law and to stimulate growth, but in strategic economic advantage The story is the same with European Union, especially with Great Britain, whose official continued interference has continued to be an embarrassment to Nigeria's existence as an independent nation.
Nigeria has been stunted in growth by the repeated installation of stooges in political offices to dance to the whims and caprices of their foreign masters. This of course ensures that certain persons cannot occupy strategic political positions in order to come to the emancipation which Nigeria so much needs. Guerrilla war fares are sponsored by foreigners, same in Nigeria. Detractors are paid.
In the economy, the story is worse. By a series of depraved policies, foreign institutions such as the IMF (International Monitory Fund), the World Bank, the Club of Paris have supported only those policies that will devalue the Naira for whatever economic reasons there may be, but the people lose, are permanently indebted to the Bretton Woods Institutions and creditor nations and the debts continue to rise. Lack of Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Culture and Governance, Environmental Impact Assessment; Ethical Business is random in Nigeria. The effect of globalization, multinational and transnational misbehaviour is common. Is profit the only reason for engagement in the economy? And why must transnational corporations practice and abate corruption in Nigeria which they dare not practice in their own countries?
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The result of all these is prostrate economy. The effects are poverty, high— cost of living, lack of basic amenities, underdevelopment, unemployment, stagnation, and frustration. These transform into anger, conflict and violence. In poverty therefore, conflict, crises and violence thrive in unimaginable proportions.
10. Poverty and Insecurity The direct effect of the harsh economic policies in the country is spiral poverty noticeable in the lives of Nigerians. Many lack purchasing power incapable of providing for their daily needs. United Nations Human Development Index has consistently classified Nigeria among the poorest in the world due to the miserly low standard of living of her peoples. The GPA has continually declined with a per capital income of less than USD2 for the average Nigerian. Under such disgruntled conditions, the poor latch on any opportunity to foment trouble and therefore yield to temptations of violence. In " the challenges of Ethnicity and conflict in Africa the need for a new paradigm ”, Sam Amoo projects that lack of food, shelter, identity, security, recognition, participation and autonomy are fuel to wooding conflict.
11. Ethnicity There is beauty in diversity and Nigeria's multi ethnic base is a potential strength. Unfortunately, however, there is an intense struggle for space within the Nigerian nation among the numerous ethnic groups in the country. Nigeria is home to more than 370 ethnic groups and nationalities with often –extreme differences. The struggle for domination among these group have so much heated up the system, such that occasionally it boils over in conflicts and violence. All the stories of violence in Nigeria have been overtly or covertly linked to ethnic basis. This is because, though ethnical difference as such would not be sufficient base for initiating conflict, it has often been exploited by political elites who have often whipped up ethnic sentiments to maximize political advantage. The most famous cliché in Nigeria today is the theme of Marginalization. The diminishing fortunes of the various ethnic groups lead each to shout marginalization more than the others, whether it be the north especially Hausa—Fulani or the lgbo people, or even the Yoruba. This syndrome in Nigerian politics, has so much heated up the system with an increase in the general feelings of social threat.
12. Ignorance and poor education In Nigeria literacy level is still below 50%. This has implications on the response of the public to national issues and the ability of citizens to weigh policies and form independent opinion. The epileptic nature of the Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response 129 educational system undermines every effort to liberate people from the bondage of ignorance. Strike actions, whether of students or teachers are common places with the ultimate consequence that Nigeria’s education system is said by pessimists to be comatose. There is therefore lack of adequate man-power knowledgeable enough to drive the engine of the economy. With a motley of uncertainties turning out half-baked products, for a people with the brightest brains comparable to anywhere in the world, who daily bloat the labour market, compounding the already endemic problem of unemployment, the social milieu is over-heated to the point of explosion, an opportunity that is usually abused by the disgruntle unemployed youth.
Ignorance of alternative means of settling disputes, or of the priceless value of peace or the eternal wisdom of dialogue and non—violence has been the bane of modern Nigerians. Religious fundamentalism, bigotry and intolerance are all indices of ignorance. Disagreements at both personal, ethnic, political and religious level can be minimized and overcome by education. This can help the local cultures to solve whatever problems existed in the past. The theme of palaver is therefore still very relevant.
13. Corruption and Poor Leadership Corruption creates more poverty. Corruption and purposeless leadership are at the root of Nigeria’s failures as an independent nation. With the vast economic resources in the oil and energy sector, and a cream of enlightened citizens, Nigeria was predicted at independence to be one of the leading nations of the world. Years have proved that the prediction was naive and unrealistic.
Nigeria has managed to produce about $3006 from oil resources and a lot more from agriculture and allied services, enough to transform her into an industrialized nation and potent world power. All these have been wasted on corruption and brigandry by a cream of greedy politicians and their local and foreign accomplices. Aimless policies and white-elephant projects are initiated without any positive impact on the economy; instead they constitute a devastating drain on the resources of the country. Corruption has led to a mindless pilling away of our resources. Few have enriched themselves beyond imagination with bloated bank accounts in and outside the country, for themselves and their generations yet unborn.
Many others lack the basic necessities of life. Lack of drinkable water, regular supply of electricity, good road and other amenities define the life of the
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ordinary man. Disaffection and anger have reached a saturation point heating and boiling over in conflicts and violence. The youth, who are affected most by the development, by the threat of a meaningless future are eager and willing to resort to insolence to see matters addressed. Experts have argued that " without some fulfilment of needs of groups with respect of security, participation in government and forth, the quality of governance, institutions and policies would be low hence crises and conflict. ”
14. Religious Difference Nigeria is the biggest Christian-Muslim country in the world, which in itself is a blessing but makes it a fertile ground for hostilities, which over-boil into different proportions of conflict and violent clashes. By their nature and motion, religious clashes/conflict are the severest and costliest. Though the constitution is clear on freedom of religion, the religious habits of some are in constant violation of those provisions. The recent adoption of Sharia legal system by some Northern States provoke another bloody uprising because it was seen by Christians as a step toward Islamization of the country.
It has been known in political history of Nigeria, that religious fundamentalism has been exploited as a political weapon by the northern elites to destabilize the country to their own advantage. indeed, the Sharia campaign is gimmick by the northern Hausa—Fulani of oligarchy to counteract their fading political influence and their diminishing access to the nation’s economic resources. In Nigeria, religious crises have been the most frequent in occurrence and the severest in execution. In all cases, the Christians and Southerners have been targets. Though Christians and traditional religionist have lived together in a state of uneasy calm, infrequent outrages have occurred causing damages to lives and property. And as things are now, nothing shows the situation is improving.
15. Socio-Political and Cultural Factors Other social, political and cultural practices enhance the atmosphere of conflict and promote violence. Ostensibly, to counter pose the exclusive control of police powers by the federal government under Nigeria’s 1999 constitution, state governments have constituted and continued to fund, various vigilante machineries under state laws. In the Western Nigeria, there is the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), in the East there is the Bakassi Boys and Movement for the Actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra (MSSOB), in the North there is The Arewa Caucus and the ever willing youth who are ready to answer any call based on religious bigotry.
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The South—South has the Egbesu Boys, while the oligarchy in the north exploits the state machinery of government to legitimatize their operations. Communities and towns form their own vigilante groups and arm them with automatic rifles for varying intensions. Daily therefore, the record of brutalization, extra—judicial executions and armed hostilities keep on increasing. These developments have been on the increase since the 90’s to supply for police incompetence, though with dire consequences.
Clashes of tribal motivations and other kinds have been irregular. Ife— Modakeke clash, the Jukun—Tiv uprising, the Umuleri-Agulleri bloody conflict are a few of the numerous inter-tribal clashes sustained and exacerbated by these vigilante group. In Onitsha and Aba, the Bakassi boys led bloody siege on the cities and indulged in wanton killing of people. Corpses littered the streets. In the West, at the slightest provocation, the Area boys and the OPC literary overtook the city of Lagos, paralyzed economic activities and held the state hostage, leaving mayhem and bloodbath in their wake.
Other cultural practices too have worsened the security situation in the country. In the Eastern part of Nigeria, certain individuals designated Osu or Ohu are social outcasts not ripe for free communal interaction. They are ostracized and regularly sacrifices to idols the myth goes in ancient times. These myths still persist to this day and people act on them. Similar situations are obtainable in many other parts of Nigeria.
Cult activities among students in higher institutions of learning in Nigeria have added another dimension to the record of conflicts and violent clashes in Nigeria. Cult activities are sponsored in the campuses by influential members of the larger society, using the members to attack their political and business opponents. Several unrest and highest sense of insecurity haunt the students in the higher institutions of learning. Daily Government respond to clashes between these groups by closing down schools. Forcing them to go home however does not lighten the security situation in the society.
16. Some Proposals on the Way Out Civic Education In order to avert the potent threat posed by the abundance of violent conflict in Nigeria, there must be a conscious campaign on Civic Education. This is one of the major strengths of CIDJAP in Nigeria. Through the means of mass media and communication, government can help this process more. But government needs assistance through the NGOs and international
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Agencies. Here the government must show good will and champion the cause by a continuous campaign against violence and by addressing several issues of injustice and deprivation, which lie at the heart of most conflicts. Unfortunately, the government is part of the problem of violence in Nigeria. Therefore, Civic Education must become the course of the civil society championed by the Church and other like-minded organizations.
Several workshops could be designed to address this matter, added to other educational and radical measures. The people must be made to know their rights within the limits of constitutional provisions. People should be educated on the implication of the Rule of Law. They should learn rational ways of resisting an unjust and oppressive government through civil disobedience, organized protests and non—violent resistance. All incidents of human right abuses must be exposed, fought and stopped.
Naturally the press is to lead in this era by highlighting grey area of importance. Non—governmental organization, Civil Society Organization (CSOs) and Community based Organizations (CBOs) are important to champion this programme of Civic Education and empowerment. No one is left out. CIDJAP has designed a programme of education in schools.
17. Mass Mobilization There is no alternative mass mobilization of the people. Much of the difficulty experienced daily in Nigeria arise due to political failure. As Plato said: the punishment of Wise men who refuse to participate in government is to live under the government of the unwise . The people must be made to live up to their responsibilities. issues of public concern should be shared and constitutional responsibility used to vote against corrupt politicians and supporting responsible government. They need to be encourage to shun violence in their daily lives and adopt an attitude of non-violence as their personal philosophy. Political and economic sabotage and conspiracy with international bodies are to be eschewed while exhorting the spirit of patriotism and good citizenship. in this way, responsible living is encouraged while undue conflict and violence are avoided.
18. Addressing Structures of Injustice Every attempt to win the war against conflict and violence would be a lip- service if nothing is done to address the high level of injustices in the society. A popular aphorism has it: if you want peace, work for justice. In his 2000 Jubilee message, Pope John Paul II urged the world to cross the Rubicon of injustice and realize the civilization of love, by a conscious and dedicated Hot Spot Nigeria: A Response 133 attempt towards the evolution of a universal brotherhood, beyond the entanglements of race, colour, tongue and creed. In Nigeria, economic imbalance and marginalization, the location of government projects and appointments of key posts, are at the root of the disaffection/dissatisfaction that blows into bloody violence.
The Niger Delta is also of a sour testimony of government insensitivity to the plight of the people from whose soil and waters is mined Oil and Mineral Resources with which the other parts of the country are developed. They have suffered untold hardship from the oil companies whose oil exploration have led to environmental pollution and complete ecological degradation. These multinational companies should embrace a spirit if corporate social responsibility and undertake to place a developmental role in the communities where they work. The Niger Delta Development Corporation, established by the Federal Government to carter for the well—being of the people of Niger Delta, and other welfare packages through which basic infrastructures are grounded, are steps in the right direction. When the irate youths of these areas are in schools and others gainfully employed, the attraction to conflict will be reduced peace and harmony are restored.
The early formation of children with a culture of peace is important in any country. Nigerians need help to overcome the rising modern culture of violence now prevalent everywhere and spread through TV, Films, and war theatres acted and sold to children as entertainment on the international arena Also the ease with which arms are manufactured and circulated for profit raises much concern. In schools, especially the primary and secondary level, peace education, should be introduced into the curriculum of schools. Tolerance, forgiveness and accommodation are virtues that should be imbibed. This will obviously counteract undermining factors of fundamentalism and fanaticism.
19. Alternative Dispute Resolution As Africans, Nigerians must accept a new readiness to adopt the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) method of settling misunderstandings and difficulties, one of which are informal but are exaggerated to a dangerous part. This method implies a range of procedures that serve as alternatives to litigation through the court for the resolution of disputes which generally involves the intercession and assistance of a neutral and impartial third party. ADR describe methods of procedures used to resolve disputes either as alternatives to counts or in some cases supplementary to the court provisions. It involves a lot of healthy stages like: arbitration, conciliation,
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mediation, negotiation and sometimes restoration, with the obvious advantages of informality, confidentiality and absence of antagonism. The obvious advantage is that it could leave the parties in question with the opportunity to resume normal relationship without any disruption or ill — feelings after an award / verdict has been rendered. Tension and hostility are reduced and often eliminated.
20. Economic and Political Reforms The path to genuine and lasting peace lies in political and economic reforms. Political reforms should aim to integrate the whole peoples of Nigeria in governance. This is called participation. This means that power should spread beyond the three major ethnic group to the minor ones who too are legitimate members of this nation. Opportunities and responsibilities should be shared out, without fear or favour.
One may consider the social market economy for a country as Nigeria. The promotion of research is important and experts should be encouraged to undergo research projects. Opportunities to share the experiences of Europe and America and other members on the south axis should be explored. Training of future elite and leaders must be a matter of priority. Here the role of the preacher, the pastor and the religious leaders should be brought to bear. Economic reforms should ensure that infrastructures and amenities are equitably distributed taking cognizance of need and use.
Economic prosperity should not be a reserve of a few opportunists that exploit their positions to the disadvantages of fellow citizens. Opportunities should be increased, to eliminate idle hands, which we know is the devil workshop. When this is done a new spirit of patriotism will dawn on Nigerians and everybody will be devoted to the evolution of a peaceful society where rights of persons are not abused, but respected.
21. The Church as an Agent of Reconciliation alongside other Agencies Nigerians love religion and they believe in their religious leaders. The Church in Nigeria enjoys high profile respect from believers and non-believers alike. The Church is the last hope of the common man in Nigeria according to Pope John XXIII, " though the Church’s first care must be for souls, how she sanctifies them and make them holy, she also concerns herself with man’s daily problems and life, man’s needs and aspirations, their daily problem and hopes ” (Mater et Magistra, No. 220).
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The Church is the longest living and surviving institution which has experience in the art of conflict resolution and crisis intervention. This role corresponds to the mandate of Mission: Go into the whole world, proclaim the Good News of salvation . The Church therefore has a big role to play in the transformation of Nigerian society with regard to conflict management and prevention. Of immediate concern are those conflicts that have religious provenance. The Church should maintain a continuous campaign on forgiveness and tolerance while condemning all forms of violent conflicts. In this way the tendency to resort to violence will be reduced. Her attention empowerment of civil society towards the ideals of peace.
The Church must champion the use of peace by empowering her priests who are well trained to be messengers of peace and preachers of the gospel message without fanaticism or antagonism. The Church must export the image of all people as Children of God and the truth that all the tribes are united in one family of God Of course, this understanding will improve interpersonal and inter religious dialogue and relationship, among the entire people of Nigeria, By nurturing trust and confidence on each other, which are necessary ingredients towards the evolution of conflict — free environment, the Church would put her services fully to the maximum advantage of organizations which are spread out to the grass roots.
The Church in Nigeria can be an agent of reconciliation as she has always done and open up avenues on ecumenical and even interreligious levels for maximum results. There is no going back on the issues of ecumenism and interrelious dialogue as the surest way to peace and non-violence in Nigeria. To complement the works of the Churches are the Civil Society Organizations (CS0) and other Community Based Organizations (CBO). Through massive education and enlightenment campaigns the war against violence and crisis of the nature lurking Nigeria as a nation at this time in her history must be won.
22. CIDJAP The Catholic institute for Development Justice and Peace is a known nationally and beyond as a social organ of the Catholic Church devoted to the empowerment of people, promotion of integral human development, challenging structures of injustices, creating hope and working for peace. CIDJAP has played a leading role in various fields of human development like researching on new models and methods of involvement in the Social Question. CIDJAP plays roles in conflict and crisis intervention and does the training of future agents of conflict resolution. This entails training,
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transformation and orientation of people and structures towards a positive and active involvement in issues concerning, justice, peace, human rights, prisoners and victim’s welfare, women and youth programmes, democratization processes, among others.
CIDJAP runs a regular course on conflicts and crisis intervention and prevention in Nigeria, CIDJAP is currently a research centre, appointed by the United States Agency for international Development (USAID) as a cluster office for crisis Intervention and prevention in the South eastern zone of Nigeria.
CIDJAP has played outstanding roles towards civic education, mass mobilization, media presence, research titles, and training of trainers, rural development, and economic empowerment of disadvantaged groups, youth education and the organization of groups for social and political revival. CIDJAP believes in the maintenance of peace and order in the society by a consistent gospel of love and tolerance and by training of people to appreciate peace and work for it. Several conflicts between persons, group and communities have been settled through our alternative dispute resolution and otherwise interventions. Besides the USAID has designated CIDJAP as a centre for conflict management and resolution for Eastern Nigeria, in recognition of her outstanding contributions in the area of peace. Other agencies, including government institutions and other NGOs see in CIDJAP a revolving centre for the theological and social leadership needs at this time.
23. Other Activities The pursuit of a peaceful Nigeria through effective conflict prevention and Management will involve multiple actors and activities.
Baseline Study: There shall be baseline research on the causes, patterns, players and effects of conflicts and violence in Nigeria with the aim of highlighting gray areas for serious focus attention The study will identify the critical areas of intervention through training, civic education and other forms of peace advocacy, This research will not only inform the content and structure of the training programmes of this project, but will also be ready resource materials for future intervention and information on this area of conflict. The outcome of the research may be made public if need be. Ignorance is one of the biggest roots of conflicts.
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Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop. This shall apply to stakeholders on peace and conflict in Nigeria at the national, regional, zonal, state and LGA. This will stretch from the three arms of government: Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. It will also involve representatives from the private sectors and public sectors, banking, energy, communications etc. Religious leaders and social agency workers are also to be trained. Others includes: teachers, students, youth and women leaders. Indeed, the training will cut across people from all walks of life to achieve a thorough awakening and concern from all sections of the country.
Step Down Training and Workshop at the Grassroots: Those who have been trained will therefore be empowered to train others at their respective states, constituencies, sectors, fields etc. In this way, a thorough and permanent culture of peace world be built together with a conflict prevention and management ability. In this, both governmental and non- governmental agencies are to be involved for an all—round success.
Publicity: The media will be extensively involved to ensure a wide publicity for resolution and activities. Education and conscientization of the public will be achieved through adequate publicity and this should receive commensurate attention.
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Violence in Nigeria - An Overview 139
Chapter Thirteen
Violence in Nigeria - An Overview
The word violence by dictionary definition is the illegal exercise of physical force, an act of intimidation by the show of threat of force, whose import is of very dire consequence and inflicts pain or extreme abuse to the rights and privilege of the recipient.
The un-mitigating spate of Violence that has characterized the sovereign state of the Federal Republic of Nigeria today is traceable to the Violation of acceptable ancestral customs, rules and traditional norms that was forcibly meted out on the various nationalities that made-up today’s Nigeria through the forceful amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by the colonial masters in 1914.
Before the intrusion of external forces inside today's Nigeria, the various nationalities or tribes in her, had traditional and customary norms that predetermined their inter—personal relationships, as well as guide collective behavioural patterns. The departure from these rules and norms came through the introduction of elitism and sophistication of both thought and action by those colonialists, who used same to gain favours and protection among the local natives. Because this paper is non-historical on our colonial past, room must be reserved for the errors of the colonial masters, so that mention will be made of the genesis of what precipitates the present anti— social malaise Nigerian Nation is passing through, especially in the multiplicity of violence on the polity and people of this Nation.
Factors of Violence in Nigeria There are many factors that have influenced the growth and development of violence in Nigeria. Mention however has to be limited to these four Basic Issues (B1) in today’s Nigeria. They are: — (1) Religion (2) Ethnicity (3) Illiteracy and (4) Poverty. Each of the above four elements are inter—related and chain—linked in the following sequence.
1. Religion Religion they say is the opium of the soul. Religions and their belief systems, are innate consummation of an individual self, and have to be the entire
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essence for which the individual self-accepts for eternal emancipation. A bond for which the individual intrinsically holds higher than any other affairs of the world, for realizing God his creator.
When Religion, therefore, becomes an imposition and condition for patronage and favours, it loses its meaning to the individual self, and only presents a compulsory social forum for the societal acceptability of the individual. For Nigeria, the issues bordering on religion have been much knottier than everything else.
Before the advent of both Islam and Christianity, like is earlier observed, the people of Africa, Nigerians inclusive, had their Basic Belief System (BBS) which from every available record, guaranteed them sound morals and good personal conduct within their Nativities . Till the present age, the average African, nay Nigerian, still harbours awe and great respect for the belief and taboos of their ancestral past despite their neck deep into either Islam or Christianity. Imams and Bishops have been known to die or have serious unexplainable physical ailments, for venturing to desecrate the holy worshipping grounds of their fore fathers. That to me shows that despite the few and far-fetched barbarism, of the Traditional Belief System (TBS) of Nigerians, that their Ancestral Religion (AR) still holds deep and could be the missing link, after all, the Saxons were once known as a Barbaric tribe, whereas the world—over today, cannot but agree that the present civilization of the world as we know it today, had its root in Africa, Nigeria inclusive.
So the introduction of Islam and Christianity, two of them forcibly to Nigerians, has been used to a very great extent to ferment violence and anarchy in the country. In fact, the Moslem Youths of Nigeria, are the main culprits of this Religion induced violence in Nigeria, as their Imams and Emirs readily find them handy, whenever they want to score a Political or ethnic point. Merciless killings, mayhem and arson have been perpetrated by these Moslem Youths without much retributive justice by any Government, so much that other Youths of other colouration and belief, joined their league, saying, if nothing was done to Moslem Youths in Kano & Kaduna, who had killed and looted people’s properties, what audacity has anybody to Visit justice or the arm of the law on them. That is the scenario as of today where up Northern Nigeria (where Islam is the main religion), the elites organize the youths for social upheaval to score ethnic or political points. While down South where Christianity is dominant, elders also deploy youths to press Violence in Nigeria - An Overview 141 home for social or economic reasons, to maim and loot; inflicting Violence on fellow citizens.
2. Ethnicity Lip-service is paid to the adage “unity in diversity” in Nigeria. For us in Nigeria, the more diverse we are, the more disunited we become. The introduction of violence on a large scale was at the point of Nigeria's Civil War. The main bone of contention then that sparked off the pogrom of the North was ethnicity. Because a military constituency wanted a change of government based on their perception of that Government as un-fit for peace and progress of Nigeria, they staged a coup. But incidentally, a particular ethnic group were leaders of the coup which was planned and executed by the military constituency. For this reason, innocent civilians and citizens of this country, who were not privy to the coup, were brutally murdered in their thousands simply because they belonged to the ethnic grouping of the master minders of the coup.
An ethnic group from the North was officially massacred for daring to defend their right (in ‘Zaki-biam’) because the Minister, who was in charge of defence, happened to come from the opposing ethnic group. When an ethnic Yoruba Youths Organisation called OPC, vents their displeasure through Violence, looting and arson, the head of the government of the Nigerian State who is a Yoruba verbally cautions them, but when a Riverine ethnic group (ODI) attempted to defend their right to self-actualization and respect to life, a detachment of well-armed government troop is dispatched to Odi for annihilation of citizens, by this same Yoruba head of Government of the Nigeria Federation.
Therefore, in a multiplicity of tribes and tongues (Nations) country like Nigeria, what should serve as our strength has become our weakness. Violence is on daily basis being visited on citizens of this country, on a mere accident of birth that such citizen is not of same ethnic nationality like you. There are more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria.
3. Illiteracy Education is the bed—rock of every human development. For a country like Nigeria where there is abundance of wealth and resources, it is regrettable to observe that her over one hundred million people are still clogged and shackled with the pains of ignorance and illiteracy. The youths of any nation are the beacon of their future hope, but for Nigeria, our youths are a constant reminder of the abject and horror-filled tomorrow. This is so,
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because the youths of Nigeria, who should be acquiring education today for our tomorrow leadership, have no access to education, formal or informal.
Youths and adults who desire education are materially denied the opportunity. There is a weak economy, and high inflationary cost. The youths who are desirous of education are in 80 out of 100, soon to realize that their parents or guardians cannot meet—up with the high cost of school fees etc. When these youths no longer could plan for their future through constructive and meaningful engagement like education, they resort to ready tools in the hands of Imam and Bishops, for religious violence, politicians and power mongers, for electoral thuggery, drug barons and smugglers for dirty jobs and even some end up willingly offering themselves for slavery and prostitution in other to make-ends meet and sustain hope for a brighter tomorrow.
The children of the elites, who must attend to school and get educated, are often not available for induced Violence in our society, because their wealthy parents ensure they pay heavily, and discriminatingly any amount to send their wards into school locally or abroad. Therefore, the hands that are available for organised crime and violence in Nigeria are those youths whose parents can ill—afford to economically sustain the high prevailing cost of education in Nigeria.
4. Poverty As the third largest oil-producing nation with high deposit of rich solid minerals, massive arable land for agricultural development and an enviable population density, Nigeria of today is a pitiable, hungry, dejected crying child, who is an orphan, without a sympathizer. Poverty of the mind and purse has immensely contributed in making violence a ‘must do’ for Nigerians, especially the youths.
With the Dollar exchanging for N140.00 and our economy dependent on imports, the average Nigerian today could be said to live on less than four Dollars per day. This poverty level has turned most Nigerians into scavengers. The high tempo-call for resource control and the restiveness of the youths from where the wealth of Nigerian Nation comes from, is a direct pointer to the collective denial and deprivation of Nigerian citizens of the benefit of their wealth. With the inconsistent government economic policies, with lily-livered programme on anti-corruption, the people of this country are constantly, in economic quagmire.
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The high poverty propensity has driven the youths in school, who cannot afford either three square meals a day, or money for their text books to turn to armed and organised crime and robbery. While their female folks engage in sex for a fee or out—right prostitution. But for those youths who cannot go to school due to parental financial indigence, they again find succour to organised violence in our society at large for their survival and this phenomenon has also affected the loyalty and concentration of those whose duty it is to check—mate crime and criminal elements in the society.
As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, there are other factors for violence in Nigeria, but these four points above are the most obvious. The reoccurring decimal in the painted scenario above is that women (girls) or youths (boys) are the mostly affected and endangered group in Nigeria. For a child whose parents have no means of educating him/her, what hope and aspiration does he or she have for a better tomorrow? Those youths, who on daily basis are being shot by some courageous law enforcement agents in Nigeria are only expressing their fears for a better tomorrow today, but regrettably through robbery and violence.
For this country to have hope of secured economic and leadership role in Africa tomorrow, as the most populous and naturally endowed nation, the present crop of Nigerian leaders must address the issues of (a) Education for the youths (b) Religious Intolerance (c) Corrupt and divisive political leadership (d) Reward for excellence without bias (e) Establishment of Youths Leadership Development Programme at a Ministerial level (f) Issues of Poverty and the Nigerian Economy, and finally (g) Ethnicity free society, where Nigeria and Nigerians must aspire equally, on a level playing platform, Without recourse to tribe and tongue.
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Regionalism, Ethnic Conflicts and Democracy in Africa 145
Chapter Fourteen
Regionalism, Ethnic Conflicts and Democracy in Africa
It is with profound joy and the spirit of African communality and solidarity that I welcome all of you to this peaceful and vibrant part of our continent, Enugu, the evergreen Coal City.
As you very well know, Enugu was the centre of one of the most heinous, most brutal and most violent ethnic-tribal conflicts on the continent of Africa (1967-1970), which has been known as the Biafran War. It has remained a classical case study which justices the raison d’etre and the urgency of this International Colloquium on "Regionalism, Ethnic Conflict and Democracy in Africa". This topic is apt as the continent remains very tensed up on issues bordering on this topic. How many million lives have been lost? What untold sufferings have been unleashed on people, many of whom are innocent children and women? How many are now refugees, with Africa’s 15 million refugees taking the first place on the global statistics of migrants and displaced persons?
As co-organizer of this very important Colloquium which has been strongly initiated and solidly supported by the German Foundation of the Konrad Adenauer Regional Representative Office in Cotonou, Benin Republic and also in my capacity as the Director of the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace; it is pertinent to note that this Conference has been a long time in realization and planning. Far back in 1990, the CIDJAP organized an Inter—continental Symposium on "Catholic Social Teaching enroute in Africa” with the participation and attendance of the continents renowned academics, ecclesiastical dignitaries and Human Rights activists to assess and re-direct the continent’s ‘permanent crisis’, elevate her joys and solve her sorrows. Dr Volker Monikes, Director of the KAF, then in Kinshasa, Zaire, was present at the Conference. It was at this time that proposals for a regional West Africa.
KAF activity were mentioned and concrete activities in this direction started. The good understanding of the KAF central office in Germany made it possible for Dr. Monikes to be posted to Benin Republic for the West Africa
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region after the unfortunate and ongoing deterioration and anarchy in Zaire under Mr. Mobutu.
It is my delight. Therefore, to say WELCOME to Dr. Monikes to our country, Nigeria again and we look forward to years of better, fruitful and patient cooperation for mutual benefit in the areas of economic, political, social and cultural growth.
The KAF will notice, and all of you participants at this International Conference will agree that our countries are devastated by problems of all Sorts; natural catastrophes and disasters, manmade political and economic destruction of the right order of things, foreign intervention and continued debasement of the African personality.
Right now, virtually every African country from Algeria to South Africa, from Kenya to Liberia, Cameroun, Sudan, Somali, are all faced with unquantifiable mess and the consequences are here with us.
Africa appears to be the last in the line this thus explains why the CIDJAP has decided to become positively involved with the ongoing attempt to provide solutions to the problems of Africa, even if in a very modest manner. The German way of speech expresses this mode: "Es gibt viel zu tun, packer; wir es an."
We cannot with a human and Christian conscience keep quiet in the face of such challenges facing Africa as if business would continue as usual. We are encouraged by the Scriptures to take a Gospel option and to support the positive elements in mankind's history.
Permit me, therefore, to introduce to you, even if in a glance, the aims and activities of the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace in Enugu. The work of the CIDJAP is rooted in the Pastoral and Social Teachings of the Church as this has been articulated in the Social Encyclicals and relevant documents of Vatican II as developed in the tradition of the Church, based on biblical foundations and contextual realities of the times. It is hoped that the Institute can adequately assess and identify the needs of the local church, scientifically research into the problems and prospects of Christianity in our land and make its findings relevant for the daily lives of the people of God. The CIDJAP intends to achieve these aims through various means:
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• To awaken God's people to the full understanding of their part and duty in the fields of Development, Justice, Charity, Peace, Human Advancement, Human Rights and to promote projects related to these aforementioned areas in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
• To provide information and formation through education of persons, publication of books, booklets, pamphlets, distribution of same through the CIDJAP CARITAS bookshop and library aimed at enlightenment of the people, animation and conscientisation of the people on the issues that touch their own lives as well as training and involvement on local, national and international matters which enhance the dignity of man.
• To sponsor the technical, practical and academic education as well as further training of talented young people of suitable character within Nigeria and abroad.
• To foster international cooperation by promoting African studies, culture, economic justice, democratic culture and enhancement of contacts and development projects between various interest groups, international Catholic agencies, non-governmental organizations, world bodies and government bodies.
• To arrange meetings, workshops, colloquia, symposia, group discussions, lectures, and community development ventures on various levels of local and international participation and on different topics. To participate actively in projects related to health, social housing, promotion of women, academic research, youth employment and vocational training.
• To promote art by organizing events and giving support to artists.
• To champion the cause of the oppressed and the marginalised as well as speak out against injustice and oppression, maintain and fight for human rights, prisoners' welfare and civil liberties of persons generally.
• To recruit and train volunteer workers who are prepared to work in remote areas, in the villages and in rural development programmes with relevant technical skills.
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• To develop and deepen pastoral reflection and action, theological ideas and Christian ideals in the context of a developing theology in Nigeria.
• Spread the social teachings of the Catholic Church as has been urged by the various Papal Encyclicals such as "Mater et Magistra", "Pacem in Terrz's" , "Populorum Pragressio" , "Laborem Exercens” and other relevant encyclicals, as well as seek for avenues to participate and accentuate integral human development policies in the milieu of a developing nation as well as promote development and related issues by means of concrete projects.
• To promote dialogue between the Catholic Church and different Christian denominations, Muslims, non-Christians, non-believers, African traditional Religions and the State, with an aim of promoting peace, tolerance and coexistence in the light of Christian social principles.
• To promote agricultural training and increased food production.
After all that has been said and done, we shall be judged finally by what we tried m in the face of crisis and not just by the good will we manifested in acknowledging the existence of crisis in an uninvolved manner. We must take sides. To be neutral in the face of injustice is a betrayal! CIDJAP should continue as a non-governmental organization in her work for the Humanization, the Civilizations and the rejuvenation of the children of God who live on this continent. Together with the KAF and all positive organizations of human progress, the peace, development and Freedoms of Africa remain our goal.
Finally, it is my hope that the deliberations in this international Colloquium in the quiet coal city of Enugu, a city that was once a war front victim on ethnic and tribal levels will be fruitful and beneficial, not only to the participants but to the larger sub region and the world in general. Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 149
Chapter Fifteen
Religion and Politics - Perspectives of the Social Teaching of the Church: The Case of Nigeria
1. The Christian Challenge and the Mandate to Transform the Society
You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 1
The aim of this paper is to show that the Christian Churches have a role to play together with Civil Society in influencing a constructive and positive social change in the world. This affects values on the cultural, socio-economic and political levels of nations. Such change is necessary for the transformation of society for the common good. It follows that this is the challenge facing many developing countries such as Nigeria in the genuine search for credible and sustainable systems that can maintain efforts put into building credible institutions and partnerships. If this is done, the polity can be stabilized to guarantee peace and promote solidarity in our fragile communities. It follows therefore that the basic questions for my presentation as already conjectured are: How can the Christian Churches contribute to the establishment of civil societies? To what extent are church institutions recognized as participants in civil societies? And do they take any political responsibility and what kind of political influence do they exploit? The answers to these questions are manifold, different and contentious as they form the thrust of this paper.
I argue however that Christian Churches especially the Catholic Church have both a mandate and a mission based on their essence, their organizational, institutional, personnel and technical capacity and with their many years of local and international experience founded upon credible human and spiritual values to assist in this search for answers to these questions. Christian Churches have a role to play in transforming the social order. As the position of the leadership of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria in the past has shown, there is agreement that:
1 Mathew 5:13 – 14.
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The churches - as well as other religious groups - have continued to play a part in the ongoing process of societal modernization and have contributed to the concurrent discourses on civil society. In some instances, the churches have actually gained in importance and have reached a new level of significance. ... Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that within the Christian Churches there are also a lot of different movements, and their influence on society needs to be fully evaluated at the present time.
Within the Christian Churches, there are also various movements from the moderate to the fundamentalist and extremist that may suggest that one cannot give a blanket response to the thematic without clarification of concepts; for if not properly qualified, religion could even impede people's active participation as citizens and hinder their rational and economic behaviour instead of supporting it. The theme ‘ Church and Civil Society' comes to straighten the position of the churches as active and dynamic agents within the society, which, although faith based', have a capability and momentum for social mobilization, value creation, prophetic engagement and concrete action. The Christian Churches have the potential to transform and complement the efforts of government in achieving these aims.
2. Focus on Nigeria Nigeria is Africa's most populated nation, with 140 million people, (Statistics of the census figures held in Nigeria in June, 2006). With a large Christian and Muslim population of over 50 million people each and a strong presence of adherents of Indigenous and Traditional Religion, Nigeria, remains a country, which has diversity of religions, cultural settings, language groups numbering over 350 and ethnic groups of over 400. What holds Nigerians together is surprisingly a belief in their deep religiosity founded on traditional African and cultural values of co-existence, ability to reconcile and interest factors. What could also split Nigeria is the inability to manage the great positive potentials which these values of religion and religiosity bring with it.
Nigeria and indeed much of Africa is blessed by a benevolent creator with abundant human and mineral resources with rich varieties and diversities in situations of both Church and society. Yet, there is abject poverty and the general misery of the people, traceable to human factors such as failed leadership, colonial and neo-colonial past, oppressive structures of injustice and sin. These include a myriad of vices uncountable to mention such as bad governance which has been tele-guided and promoted by successive military dictatorships and bad civilian governments; the exploitation and degradation Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 151 of the environment as has never been known before; desertification of large areas of the country; deforestation of the mangrove forests; oil spillages and the destruction of the Niger Delta and other solid minerals of Nigeria, sometimes without social or corporate responsibility by businesses and corporations to the people or the earth; the mismanagement of scarce resources; ethnic bigotry; corruption and the economic disparities of a people so richly endowed, yet so unable to manage these resources due to other global and international aspects of a world unjust economic and political order and the religious fanaticism which hopelessness drives people into when all hope is lost. This is the background of the growing Islamic religious tensions in Nigeria leading often to violence and destruction.
On the topic of religion and what it means for Africans generally, we chose the wise and true words of John Mbiti who writes in his book on the 'Religions and Philosophy of Africa' that African peoples “ eat, dress, live, think, work, dance and breathe religiously. Indeed, every activity of these people is founded on religion, be it name giving, food, dance, celebration to mention but a few."
For our context in this work, this "Religiosity is important as a point of departure as it is fundamental to the reality of Church as an organization. Religion brings with it spiritual wisdom and meaning which has content and vision about God, the world, morality, man and society. This is what Nigeria needs at this time, to have people and organizations with rational religious faith and belief in Nigeria, its people, its resources and therefore its future. It means the gifts of patriotism, the ability to fight corruption, the ability to govern oneself and promote good governance, the Rule of Law, transparent economic practices, respect for human rights, promotion of freedoms of both individuals, groups and women, the encouragement of education and health initiatives, counselling of the aged and disabled. Following the Africa Synod, the Catholic Bishops of Africa pleaded for a collaboration and partnership of the Church and the State in African countries as the Synod conclusions contain in the document "Ecclesia in Africa" of Pope John Paul. These Synodal conclusions include an agenda to promote: Proclamation, Enculturation, Dialogue, Justice and Peace and the means of Social Communication.
3. The Church and Civil Society The Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in 1965 reflected in deep detail on the role and place of the Church and the Christian in the modern world. In its statement published in the last document of that Council known as the decree "Gaudium et Spes ", the Church determined that
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it had a Mission from its Founder and a role to play in the life of the world. The document states very clearly that the Church must "consider the signs of the times and translate them in the light of the Gospel" (GS No 2). In this understanding, events, situations and aspirations of people have a direct link to faith and the role of organized religion in offering a response that is concrete and healing. In this approach, scripture passages long neglected make new sense. The demands of the Gospel are applied to the massive injustices prevalent on modern society, both national and global and are translated to reflect on their relevance on how a better life can be achieved. Thus, faith and life are linked. Far back in 1963, Pope John XXIII understood this challenge; for in the encyclical letter ‘ Mater et Magistra’ , he writes:
Though the Church's first care must be for souls, how she can sanctify and make them share in the gifts of heaven, she concerns herself too with the exigencies of man's daily life, with his livelihood and education and his general welfare and prosperity. 2
Applied on the universal level therefore, there is a challenge for participation in the world wide call for institutional and individual engagement especially of the Christian Churches in actions that lead to societal transformation. These include activities that border on areas where the State is a competent provider of goods and services; the promotion of education, social services, health issues, healing wounds, reconciling divided peoples with the ingredients of justice, development and peace, promoting the Rule of Law, support for the demands of accountability and transparency, good governance and the principles of democracy upon which the stability of a nation depends. Christian engagement on these matters could be effectively done through the knowledge and spread of the Church's Social Teaching which anchors the need for Church and Civil Society to promote the common good.
This is the practical ambient for realizing the ambition of the role the Church and Civil Society in the transformation of Nigeria from poverty to wealth, ignorance to knowledge, apathy to action, backwardness to progress, disease to health and exclusion to an all-inclusive society. No wonder, the document of the synod of Bishops on the theme “Justice in the World" in 1971 states very clearly that: "action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the teaching of the Gospel, or in other words, of the Church's Mission for the salvation of the human
2 Mater et Magistra no. 3. Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 153 race and its liberation from oppressive situation". Earlier, the great Pope John XXIII had declared that achieving such aim was possible on the conditions of knowledge and spread of the Social Doctrine of the Church:
But today more than ever, it is essential that this doctrine be known, assimilated, and put into effect in the form and manner that the different situations allow and demand. It is a difficult task indeed, yet a most noble one. To the performance of it we call, not only our own sons and daughters scattered throughout the world, but also men and women of goodwill everywhere". (Mater et Magistra). Concluding, the Pope calls for the unity of Thought and Action. "It is not enough merely to formulate a social doctrine. It must be translated into reality. And this is particularly true of the Church's Social Doctrine, the light of which is truth, justice its objective and love its driving force. (Mater et Magistra)
4. The Church Transcends Civil Society and The Political Community:
“You are in the world but not of the world.”
(John: 15: 18-25) Since this is the thrust and the understanding of the issues, the current debate in some circles should actually not be focused on whether the Christian Churches and Faith Based Organizations as well as religious groups and indeed religion as such could play a role in the positive transformation of the world and society at large for here they belong as citizens. There are civic obligations and it is clear that they must be engaged. The debate at all is on whether the Christian Churches could in themselves be described as part of Civil Society. This of course is a debate that is difficult to conduct for it touches on areas that deal with the Mandate and Mission of the Church and are beyond the competence of temporal authorities. They are accepted as given in many societies since they are transcendent and affect the self-understanding, identity, essence and mission of the religious organizations involved themselves, beyond what external factors may want them to be or attribute to them. Of course this point of view is an expression that may not be generally shared; thus the debate. Paragraph 76 of the document of the Second Vatican Council "Church in the Modem World states that it is highly important, especially in pluralist societies that a proper view exists of the relation between the political community and the Church. The position of the Catholic Church is such that;
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She must in no way be confused with the political community, nor bound to any political system. In their proper spheres, the political community and the Church are mutually independent and autonomous". Yet by different titles, each serves the personal and social vocation of the same human beings. The more they co- operate reasonably, the more effectively they will perform this service to everybody's advantage. Man is not confined to the temporal order. The Church rooted in the Redeemer's love, helps to make justice and charity flourish more vigorously within nations and between nations. She preaches the gospel truth and brings the light of her teaching to be on every province of human affairs with the witness of her faithful. Thus she respects and promotes political liberty and responsibility. Always and everywhere the Church must be allowed to preach the faith with true freedom, teach her social doctrine, carry out her task among men unhampered and pass moral judgments even on matters considering politics when fundamental rights or the salvation of souls require it. 3
From the above, it is clear that the Catholic Church does not understand its destiny or see its existence as one that is clearly a part of the Civil Society. The Church is a global player and has remained so even before the birth of virtually all the modern nations and civil society organizations that exists today. This historical role and the core of its mission to heal, to sanctify and to lead and to reconcile all things in Christ places the mandate of the Church as one that has even a mission to bring back to the heavenly Father the gift of both the State, Civil Society Organizations, the Private sector, communities and individuals most of whom are fragile and are broken, into a reconciled whole. The Church in her self-understanding stands as the agent of Christ in the service of evangelization to entire creation and mankind. "Go into the whole world proclaim the good news of salvation to all creation" (Mathew 28:20). Indeed, the Catholic Church (and some other Christian Churches) understand its mission as one that is moral and transcendental; hence a divine mandate that is before the State, beyond the State and yet in service of the State for the salvation of the State, its peoples and all humanity. Because of this claim to transcendental origins in God, who in Christ has given the Church its Mission, mandate, end and means, the Church cannot be easily called a part of Civil Society. Yet, the Church collaborates and partners very closely in an integral manner with the State, the private and public sectors
3 Gaudium et Spes, para. 76. Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 155 and all peoples of goodwill in building up a sustainable human society. This position, clear as it is could pose problems if not well understood. It is the task of the current debate to make reasonable propositions to find a proper balance in the advanced views so that a correct understanding and role for the Christian Churches is found. The purpose of the Church is mission for the Integral Salvation of Mankind. It is not just a mission that targets simply the temporal satisfaction and provision of people’s needs and freedom that is meant. That would be too limiting. The Church works towards the total salvation and liberation of mankind - body and soul and the reconciliation of entire creation in Christ with God.
But does this imply that the Church is beyond the State and the Civil Society? A response to this question is not easy, for this is a question that has universal appeal. Religion and religious values and institutions have affected virtually every nation, people, cultures and races on earth. The experiences may be different but people see Religious Institutions as God's mission that is even beyond the State. In some instances, from the historical point of view, the State was even placed under Religion. God was considered the Absolute Maker and Creator of the universe upon whom all power depends: "Power and Might are in his hands" as the Psalmist writes. In our time and age, it has become very urgent to make a proper balance between the roles of the Churches and religious organizations and reassess their competence vis -a -vis the State. Collaboration, joint partnership and inter-dependence appear as the right concepts to apply in this connection.
5. Challenges and Activities of the Christian Churches in Nigeria Christian Missionary enterprise started in Nigeria in the mid-19 th Century, around 1850 with various Christian denominations involved, particularly, the Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Evangelicals and other Protestants engaged in the work of evangelization. Later, the African Christian Churches emerged with their emphasis on enculturation and the mixture of the western received euro-centric Christian faith and their traditional practices. The phenomenon of the Pentecostal Church's in Nigeria is very current and therefore falls outside the scope of this work. Just for the sake of reference, Islam had been in Nigeria particularly in the northern parts for centuries earlier.
In Nigeria, the Catholic Church together with other confessions and religious groups, often acting separately in the past contributed differently and on various levels towards building up a genuine foundation for the emergence of Nigeria-country that is struggling to emerge within the international
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community as a nation that guarantees human freedoms, the satisfaction of human wants and the preservation of the integrity of its peoples. Christian Missionaries especially have championed and contributed to Nigeria's development in the past and present historical epochs. This is expected to continue into the future by engaging in many activities, such as:
• Fight Against Slave Trade and Abuse of Human Dignity: The fight against slave trade and other manifold abuses against human worth which according to history was an abhorrent and nefarious denigration of human dignity. Slave trade was the business of selling human beings from various African nations through the North Atlantic Ocean axis to Europe and the Americas; but also on the trans-Saharan axis to Arabic nations; as well as on trans-lndian Ocean axis to Asia. The slave trade was fought against and stopped by humanists, philosophers, free thinkers, groups of enlightened people acting with a Christian and human conscience. Much later on, the work of Christian missionaries within Nigeria itself made the complete stop of this trade possible.
By fighting against the slave trade and stopping it effectively, the Christian Churches both in the West and in Nigeria who collaborated fulfilled their mandate to enhance the sacred dignity and worth of individuals and indeed the black race. Missionaries such as the Anglicans and the Catholics set up centres where ex-slaves were received and rehabilitated, given education and guaranteed protection. They also purchased and paid the price due on ex-slaves whose slave masters demanded for the original price paid on them, to mention but a few of the activities related to this traumatic and shameful practice of slave dealings and the trade of human beings as goods.
• Decolonisation: The fight for decolonization was also championed by various interest groups, humanists, politicians, some Christian persons and the indigenes themselves who came to realize the monumental injustice which colonialism brought with it. Today, the Christian Churches are leading in the decolonization campaign as we witnessed in the case of South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Biafra (which did not survive then) and many other nations; the promotion of education for all.
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• Health: The promotion of health, social institutions and welfare homes in the pre-nation-state of Nigeria was mainly a primary method of evangelization by the emergent new Christian missionaries. Orphanages were built to cater for the socially disadvantaged in many rural areas by Catholic Missionaries; hospitals were constructed in the urban and peri-urban centres since under colonial rule, the British in Nigeria did not care for the rural areas and the lives of people there but focused on infrastructure within some urban towns of pre- colonial Nigeria. These hospitals and the training of adequate personnel both within and without Nigeria and the supply of equipment and drugs helped in no small measure to guaranteeing the foundations of a healthy nation. Today in Nigeria, the Catholic Church remains the largest and strongest health services supplier amongst all the Christian and religious denominations in the country.
• Education: The promotion of educational institutions such as schools, evening bible classes, centres for learning at the primary, secondary, tertiary and skills acquisition levels. Through the schools, people were empowered and encouraged with capacity to fight for their own liberation, engage the oppressor, gain independence and self- reliance which education brings with it; cultivation of culture, morality and conscience as ingredients of good character and the overall impact of education in nation building. It is on record that the best schools in Nigeria till date are those with Christian origins and background. With meagre resources that is much less than what the State has, Mission and Christian Churches have built up massive training programmes and educated millions of Nigerians at all levels from childhood to adulthood. This is an area where collaboration and partnership is called for, instead of the hostile State attitude to Mission Schools and even the complete takeover of such schools at a certain period of the nation's development at the end of the Biafra war. Education is key to a nation's development. In Nigeria the products of Christian Missionary Schools participated actively in nation building as politicians, teachers, administrators, entrepreneurs, civil servants in both the public and private sectors and community leaders. Upon these products of Christian Mission Schools rests to a great extent, the human and social capital which the people of the nation can showcase as their strength and asset. Christian Churches made this possible and this has continued in the absence of European missionaries as the local priests and educated
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elite have continued to see education as one key area where the Nigerian State has failed and where they, the Christian Missions themselves cannot fail.
• Social Mobilization Potentials: The power of mobilization of people and the reality of grassroots support and control of the churches on their believers is a factor which is critical in Nigeria. African peoples believe their religious leaders and respect the impact of religion on their own personal life and destiny. Not to be religious is to be un-African and indeed un-Nigerian. Christian Churches have a potential as social organizations to influence their followers, not just in a prayer or faith encounter but even on social and political matters. Through this mobilization, people were encouraged to go out to vote and to effect changes in their society on the social, economic and political levels of society. This element of grassroots mobilization is highly relevant and critical in today's Nigeria. Even though the Churches did not found political parties or make their members join the political parties as these were more ethnic at the onset as religious, they could with the present state of things at least influence the process of a credible election by election monitoring, call for a boycott of elections, influence candidates for political post and indeed, they do influence who gets what post in some relevant government and political postings.
• Leadership Roles: The Nigerian Christian Churches seem to be assuming greater responsibility in leadership roles. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria write public statements often much of which are orientations of the State and the citizenry towards higher values and the position to take on matters where one demands to take a stand. This leadership role makes the bishops and priests to be consulted by various stakeholders in matters concerning the common good and public good.
• Missionary Awareness: The country with the largest number of seminarians and persons entering the seminary to become priests in the Catholic world of today is Nigeria. Statistics from the Vatican show that this is followed by India and Poland Nigeria is now ready to send missionaries to other countries of the world including Europe, America and Asia, countries which once sent their own missionaries to Africa. In assuming this internal God given gift and role as a Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 159
missionary producing country, Nigeria is now gaining respect from the Catholic Church as a leader in the provision of trained agents of evangelization who work, not only in their own countries, but even abroad. No one shall doubt the great effect of a country known as a provider of missionaries. Placed besides countries that produce technology, ICT merchandise and other goods, this is a notable achievement and a worthy contribution of the Nigerian Church to universal Christendom at this age and time.
• Constructive Criticism of the State and Advocacy : This applies where the Christian Churches are both loyal to the State, yet are the greatest critique of the State. Because of the weight of the opinion of the leaders of Christian Religious groups, the Christian Association of Nigeria which is a union of all the five major groups of Christian religious denominations has emerged. Besides the singular voices of the bishops or their positions in plural as is often noted under the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), there are and other voices which attract both international and local audience and attention. What religious leaders say matters to the State, the adherents of these religions and the citizenry.
• Promotion of Dialogue: The promotion of dialogue of life and of religions especially with Islam and traditional societies, with the modern world and technology and with the various levels of society is one that falls squarely to the portfolio of the Christian Churches... Dialogue is all about finding common ground in the search for truth without necessarily compromising one's own position. Dialogue minimizes the urge for the use of violence and other means in the settlement of issues. With a large percentage of Muslims and Christians, numbering on either side over fifty million people, Nigeria has the largest population of these religious groups more than any other country on the continent Its challenges therefore in maintaining religious peace and harmony are a must, difficult as it may be.
6. Moving Nigeria Forward – The Role of the Christian Churches: There are definitely challenges that face Nigeria at this period of its search for unity and progress as a great nation within Africa. With the background of several years of attempts and failures caused both by historical, contingent, human and natural factors, the Christian Churches cannot stand aloof and watch as the nation goes apart and its great mission of reconciliation and
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announcing the good news of salvation thwarted. It has become clear that with many years of military dictatorship, the Nigerian State became a failed experiment whose fabric and architecture had to be re-done. This is the challenge of the present times. Making this possible demands enormous sacrifices of all and sundry including individuals, NGO's and civil society organizations, local and national actors, private sector led organizations, communities, the international community and of course religious and traditional leaders. The Church fall into this category.
Thus the entire attempt towards nation building to which the Churches are called to act together as stakeholders and salvage the nation, cannot be achieved through prayer and preaching alone. This is good but not enough. It has to be followed by concrete action as is currently carried out by the various agents of the Catholic Church in Nigeria in the commissions for development, Justice, Peace and Caritas. These activities have to be intensified. Such action can be played out by articulate programmes that address and support the national and public efforts of the politicians in the following areas:
• promotion of the rule of law, • support for economic stability with programmes for sustainability, • enhancing good governance and conflict mediation, • assisting the state in the monitoring of elections to avoid rigging, • advocacy work which makes the Church the voice of the voiceless, • supplying assistance in education, health and other social projects, • collaborating with government in the fight against poverty at the grassroots levels, • maintaining high ethical profile and calling for justice, peace and reconciliation, • building communities for peace and educating its own members in tolerance • leadership and value creation for focused action, • Helping to build inclusive and integrated societies.
Using the agenda of the Millennium Development Goals, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, recognized the role religions and Church leaders can play in building the civil society and the nation. According to him:
The Eight Millennium Development Goals are a set of simple but Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 161
powerful objectives which, together, make up the world's agreed blueprint for building a better world. They have been embraced by donors, developing countries, civil society and major development institutions alike. Enlightened religious leaders and scholars of all faiths also have a key role to play.
Their advocacy can influence political leaders and ordinary citizens alike. Their teaching and guidance can inspire people to new levels of responsibility, commitment and public service. And by their example, they can promote interfaith dialogue and bridge the chasms of ignorance and misunderstanding.
The decisions taken at the 2005 World Summit, and the mobilization of Civil Society groups throughout the world, offer encouraging signs of gathering political will to reach the Goals. I encourage religious leaders and scholar's to do their part in defeating poverty and hunger, and in delivering the world’s poorest and most marginalized people from despair.
7. Catholic Social Teaching and Guiding Principles: We come to a conclusion of this reflection and offer some suggestions on the fundamental values and choices which the Christian Churches and indeed all religious groups may need to emphasize as crucial for the survival of society. These values are of priority in the promotion of core principles that sustain the nation. They stem from the Christian conception of life and society as envisaged in the Catholic Social Thought and even find parallel in the wisdom of traditional Nigerian wisdom thought, and practices in ancient culture. Therefore, they are not necessarily borrowed principles. I state them simply here in the form of a summary:
1. Religious and social dimensions of life are linked: The ‘ Social’ human construction of the world is not ‘Secular’ in the sense of being outside of God's plan, but is intimately involved with the dynamic of the reign of God. Therefore, Faith and Justice are closely linked together. (Gaudium et Spes, 1965 n. 39). To be a Christian is to be a Good and engaged Citizen.
2. Dignity of the human person: Made in the image of God, women and men have pre-eminent places
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in the Social Order, with inalienable political, social, legal and economic rights. The fundamental question to ask about social development is: what is happening to people? (Populorum Progressio, 1968, N.8 -26).
3. Option for the poor: A preferential love should be shown to the poor, whose needs and rights are given special attention in God's eyes. Poor is understood to refer to the socially and economically disadvantaged who as a consequence of their status, suffer oppression and powerlessness." (Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens 1971, n.23).
4. Love and justice are linked: Love of neighbour is an absolute demand for Justice, because charity manifests itself in actions and structures which respect human dignity, protect human rights, and facilitate human development. To promote justice is to transform structures which block love. (Justice in the world, 1971 n. 16 and 34).
5. Promotion of the Common Good: The Common Good is the sum total of all those conditions of social living -economic, political, cultural which makes it possible for women and men to readily and fully achieve the perfection of their humanity. Individual rights are always experienced within the context of promotion of the common good. (John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, n. 65).
6. Political Participation Democratic participation in decision making is the best way to respect the dignity and liberty of people. The government is the instrument by which people cooperate together in order to achieve the common good (Christmas Message). 7. Economic Justice The economy is for the people and the resources of the earth are to be equitably shared by all. Human work is the key to contemporary social questions. Labour takes precedence over both capital and technology in the production process. Just wages and the rights of workers to form trade unions are to be respected. Women and disabled people, migrants and unemployed people share fully in the profits of the production process in solidarity. (John Paul II, Laborem Exercens , 981). Religion and Politics - Perspectives of t he Social Teaching… 163
8. Stewardship All property has a ‘social mortgage’. All people are to respect and share the resources of the earth. By our work we are co-creators in the continuing development of the earth. (John Paul II, Laborem Exercens ).
9. Global Solidarity We belong to one human family and as such have mutual obligations to promote the development of all people across the world. In particular, the rich nations have responsibilities toward the poor nations and the structures of the international order must reflect justice. (Paul VI, Populorum Progressio , 1967).
10. Promotion of Peace Peace is the fruit of justice and is dependent upon right order among humans and among nations. The arms race must cease and progressive disarmament takes place if the future is to be secured. In order to promote peace and the conditions of peace, an effective international authority is necessary. (Paul VI, Populorum Progressio , 1967).
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Righteousness in Governance 165
Chapter Sixteen
Righteousness in Governance 1
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in 1965 reflected in deep detail on the role and place of the Church and the Christian in the modern world and determined as its mandate in the decree ‘ Gaudium et Spes’ to:
Consider the signs of the times of the Gospel and translate them in the light of the Gospel. 2
In this new approach, scripture passages long neglected make new sense. We are also enabled to interpret the Gospel message within the context of experience of those who are victims and members of a hostile and ungodly society; those who have been denied the development and legitimate enjoyment of the fruits of human and material resources; those who have been stripped of their humanity and reduced to the level of chattels, the prisoners of human-inflicted pervasive society, the marginalized. How can the Nigerian Church and Christian respond to the massive injustices prevalent in our modern society, on national and global scales?
Unlike previous theological approaches which drew us to the scriptures and traditions only as exclusive sources for guidance in knowing God’s will, the Vatican Council pointed to a further source found in social theology which recognizes events, situations and aspirations of people. People cannot be separated from the situation in which they live.
This paper derives its urgency, therefore, from a fundamental concern with the present state of affairs in our dear country- politically, socially, economically and religious and culturally. It seeks to ask questions about meaning and orientation in a situation of helplessness, where many have accepted apathy, distrust, mischief and bad governance. Can we afford to continue this rudderless travel on a ship, which has lost direction? There is need for people with conscience, committed Christians and enlightened
1 Ike, O.F.; Paper delivered at an International Symposium organized by The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), Nigeria. 2 Gaudium et Spes, no. 2.
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citizens to speak out and act with good example. There is need for the prophetic voice of the church in our time and era. Here is the place. For not to act is the evil. “The man dies that keeps silence in the face of tyranny.”
The Challenge The topic Righteousness in Governance is aimed to bring to the fore, the role of the citizen who is a believer, a Christian and an adherent of a religious faith to participate at efforts which lead to nation building. It seeks also to challenge the church in Nigeria to assume its rightful position of leadership and relevance in our great nation by playing its God-determined roles of teacher, reconciler, social transformer and prophet. This is a challenge, which finds experience in the fulfilment of the scriptural injunction: “Righteousness exalts a nation”.
A truly Christian challenge and a fundamental option in a corrupt society like ours to respond to the signs of the times imposed by the demands of the modern society by following in the footsteps of the teacher and master himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth who urged his followers “to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth” (Matthew chapter 5 ). Do we have other viable alternatives? And could we afford the option of lethargy and apathy at this time? At what costs would these be for us and for human heritage?
Pope John XXIII far back in 1963 understood this challenge for in the Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra, he writes:
Though the Church’s first care must be for souls, how she can sanctify them and make them share in the gifts of heaven, she concerns herself too with the exigencies of man’s daily life, with his livelihood and education, and his general welfare and prosperity. 3
Like John the Baptist in the desert, repeating the citation of Isaiah, there is a call for the committed and convinced Christian and citizen of our time, country and era. We are challenged to be:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the ways of the Lord, make his path straight. (Matthew 3:3; Isaiah 40:3)
3 Mater et Magistra, no.3 Righteousness in Governance 167
The world in which we live in, is experiencing a number of conflicts some of which seem to have assumed a new and agonizing dimension. There are conflicts and contradictions between governments and the peace movements, the rulers and the ruled, trade unions and employers, the rich and the poor, ethnic groups and races and more currently, within Nigeria, between religious groups especially the Muslims and the Christians. In many cases, human lives have been lost and war was threatened. No wonder, the document of the Synod of Bishops in 1971 on the theme Justice in the World states that;
Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as constitutive dimension of the teaching of the Gospel, or in other words, of the Church’s mission, for the salvation of the human race and its liberation from every oppression situation. 4
Situations of Conflict and Crisis We live in an interdependent world where crisis and other happenings in one region affect the others. The continent of Africa has had its fair share of crisis and conflicts. Since 1970, over fifty wars have been fought in our continent and indeed, in all the regions of the continent, giving Africa the image of the continent with the largest number of displaced persons and refugees. United Nations Development programme (UNDP) Human Development Index Report for year 2000 shows that most African countries are in the list of the least developed countries of the world.
We have the least Gross National Product and Income Per capita, the largest stretch of poverty, unemployment, educational possibilities, medical care, necessary utilities such as water, electricity and rural and urban infrastructure; without access to capital, information technology and modern means of mass communication. The digital divide has continued at the expense of Africa. Globalization has continued but most of our people are not on the train.
From the horn of African to Central Africa, from Southern Africa to the great lakes region and down to West Africa, we are all caught up in a collective convulsion of war and violence. Some of these fratricidal wars have subsided, but their traumatic and tragic effects are still with the people. Think
4 Synod of Bishops On ‘Justice in the World’ 1971.
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about the child soldiers and the maimed in Sierra Leone and Liberia of recent.
It is sad to observe that despite all appeals in the past for the respect of the dignity of the human person, the violation of human rights, civil rights, political and social rights, cultural and economic rights continue unabated not only in our country Nigeria, but indeed elsewhere on the globe and even in the entire sub region of West Africa. Although democratically elected governments have been installed in all the seventeen countries of our sub regions at the level of Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), the first time in history, we do know that the leaders and the led are still learning to operate the system. They are on transition towards democracy, to say it mildly. What we have may be near to civilian government, but a democratic culture is yet to emerge.
Our country Nigeria and indeed much of Africa is blessed by the benevolent Creator with abundant human and mineral resources and with rich varieties and diversities in situations of both Church and society. Yet we are aware of the abject poverty and general misery presently facing our people, traceable to human factors such as colonial and neo–colonial structures, oppressive structures of injustice and of sin. These include myriad of vices, uncountable to mention such as bad governance which has been teleguided and promoted by successive military dictatorships and bad civilian governments; exploitation and degradation of the environment as we have never known it before.
We observe with horror, the desertification of large areas of our country, the expansion southwards of the arid and Sahel zones, the deforestation of the mangrove forests, the oil spillages and destruction of the Niger delta and other solid mineral areas of Nigeria, sometimes, without social or corporate responsibility by businesses over the earth; the mismanagement of scarce resources; endemic and all pervasive corruption in high and low places and in all forms, including bribery and the cult of mediocrity; ethnic bigotry; religious fanaticism and burdens resulting from international debts and unjust economic world order. Child-soldiers abound in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and other countries of our sub region. They have been abused and traumatized and there is hardly any rehabilitation going on for them. There are no skill centres for their retraining and crime thus abounds. With guns and no breads, what else could they make out of the meaning of life?
Other forms of child abuse persist alongside with trafficking on women. The local, national and international prostitution of women as good business by Righteousness in Governance 169 middle persons and consumers remains a scourge, which the intelligent mind still fails to fathom. The disregard and marginalisation of women is an issue of general concern; they are sometimes not given equal opportunities with men because of their gender both in public and private sectors and even are sexually assaulted or harassed.
The results of all these stare us in the face: inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic conflicts; inter-religious squabbles and suspicion; widespread unemployment of youths, many of whom have not seen their first jobs while their parents and sponsors have lost their last jobs; hunger exists in the land added to the current spread of such diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS which leads to painful and excruciating death. Current costs of living have soared, making conditions of living and the quality of life cheapen in many cases. We are aware that the poor are increasing in their millions whilst the rich are becoming more exclusive.
Called to Minister and to Reconcile It is this state of affairs, characterized by strife, lack of orientation and meaning, conflict and human misery that the Church is called upon to carry out her evangelizing mission. Of course, at the roof of all these divisions and tensions is the human heart wounded by sin. Sin, which causes death, has made the ministry of religion, of the Church and of reconciliation an urgent task in our land. In the words of the Apostle Paul:
God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s fault against them We are ambassadors for Christ, it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is, be reconciled to God ( 2 Corinthians 5:19 – 20).
John the Baptist appealed for social morality, not just for a change of ritual purity or petty details of Sabbath observance. He challenged the people including the mighty Herod for immorality and injustice. He lost his life for daring to speak out but his message spread. Jesus may not have agreed with John in every detail, but he used John as his own point of departure, calling people to repentance and change of heart and lifestyle.
The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is close at hand Repent and believe the Good News (Mark: 1 :15).
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Jesus read the signs of the time and gave his message. He made himself relevant and made sure that in fulfilment of the Will of the father, he was faithful to the end, even to the excruciating passion and shameful death on the Cross. Those who followed him and his message have seen his power, capable of changing entire human history. Those who neglect him and his message have done this but not without some repercussions on their worldview, general happiness and lifestyle.
Criticism of the Role of Religion and the Church in Our Society It is no longer unusual to read open criticism of religion in our local newspapers. Religion and the Churches are blamed for sowing discord in the country through the denominational schools, even held responsible for the so called educational imbalance between one part of the country and the other. They are accused of dogmatic indoctrination, of intolerance and bigotry. On another level, the Christian religion is labelled as foreign and condemned as the colonial remnant responsible for the cultural alienation of the African and the banishment of its gods.
Thickly veiled or even overt anti-religion or anti-clericalism has not been unknown in the pronouncements and administrative policies of some of our leaders. In general, there is a tendency to make religion a scapegoat for a myriad of our societal ills and the impression is given that society would certainly be better off without religion. Even beyond our national frontiers, the criticism of religion and its role in society has even gained in intensity. It is taunted that religion has not succeeded in making the world better; that in fact, on the contrary, it has made it worse. Left wing critics and rationalists, even atheists point out that religion as institutionalised belief, has become an ideology in the service of the bourgeoisie with whose worldview and life style it is identified. It has, therefore, become an instrument for the maintenance of a conservative status quo, that is to say, an instrument of oppression.
The substance of religious beliefs, namely the idea and belief in God’s promises and God’s will have gradually exposed the anthropomorphic dimensions of the concept of divinity. No wonder, the great philosophers of religion like Rudolf Otto speak of religion as “ Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinendum ”. Karl Marx calls religion an “ opium of the people”, a world of fantastic unreality, made by man for his own illusion. For him, therefore, the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the necessary condition for their real happiness (Cf. Marx Engels Studienausgabe Band, Philosohie Fischer Fischer Bucherei, p.17-18). Marx is, however, now dead since Righteousness in Governance 171
1881. He did spread the idea of communism which we all have witnessed its ideology crumbling like empty paper in the early 1990’s from country to country, starting from Russia to Angola and beyond.
Friedrich Nietzsche who lived before Marx, a philosopher of ‘nihilism’ (nothingness) announced to the world “God is dead” . For him, religion, particularly Christianity is a demoralizing and emasculating force for it teaches humility and robs men of their pride and ego. It takes side with the weak, the lowly, and the failures, and has even ruined the understanding of the intellectually strong natures by teaching people to regard the highest intellectual values as sinful, misleading, nay, as temptations. Religion must disappear so that the super man may emerge, with all his instincts, without any inhibitions and with no pretentious morality (The Will to Power; Anti- Christ; Beyond Good and Evil). Nietzsche died of syphilis and went mad towards the end of his life. It was Machiavelli who castigated Christianity for inducing meekness and the patient acceptance of injuries and because as he put it: “It causes us to attach less value to the honours and the good things of this world”. His belief in absolute power however made him see religion as a tool for social mobilization, for keeping the people submissive, loyal and obedient and for making children fear reprisals.
Ludwig Feuerbach in his book: ‘The Essence of Christianity’, published in 1841 affirms that: the foundation of true philosophy is not to posit the finite in the infinite, but the infinite in the finite. We should capitalize not on the idea that God created man but on the idea that man created God…
Feuerbach ended his religious critique by insisting that;
All theology is real anthropology. God is simply a creation of man for having many wishes, which he desires to have fulfilled, persuades himself that a god exists who can fulfil them. Therefore, religion merely represents an unconscious attempt on the part of man to defy objectively his own essential nature.
Further critique of religion even within our own Nigerian States gives an impression that religion has lost its initial evangelical impulse which was essentially humanitarian and pure in its holiest sense. It is said that they have now degenerated into a system of cold dogmas, empty ritual, intellectual mystification, false prophesies of doom, fake pastors, prophets and dupes
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who are charlatans, wolves in sheep clothing misleading the ignorant, the naïve and the helpless. The search for money has turned many churches and religious centres into places of trade, and it is no longer seldom to hear criticisms labelled against some churches, religious leaders and religious centres, likening them to the chastisement Jesus once gave to the traders whom he chased out of the Temple in Jerusalem: “my house is a place of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves”.
These and many more, besides daily scandals and inappropriate teachings, appear as the human predicament associated with religions and religious phenomena. It indeed does appear that there are some abuses with religion and even some aspects, which can be socially dysfunctional if not detrimental. It becomes evidently clear and an imperative, therefore, that people who dare to preach to others about God, religion, truth, equity, justice and peace must first of all purify themselves and try to be both just and far in search of peace in their own lives.
Religion as a Social Factor for Value Orientation Reverend Theophilius Okere, in his book: Religion in Public Life, 1974, aptly established the two functions of religion in society, namely:
1. Religions as a factor of reaction, functionalist priestly view 2. Religions as a factor of revolution, prophetic view
These two functions, though seemingly opposed to each other are indispensable to the society. A society without stable values, institutions and traditions would be no less inhuman than where progress is totally arrested and change impossible. From one point of view, religion can be seen as a stabilizing factor, from another as a factor of disintegration, and a catalyst in society.
Religion though a response to the problems of the individual in the face of the human condition has very distinct functions for the society at large; it is both an intimately private affair and also an eminently public affair. Religion, on account of its transcendental dimension, at any rate in the functionalist view, sacralises the norms and values of the established order, maintaining the dominance of group goals over individual wishes and of group disciplines over individual impulses. It is, therefore, a means of social control and a stabilizing factor. It imposes a framework of ultimate reference, that is, it determines the value system of society. Righteousness in Governance 173
In the functionalist view, all elements of a society perform a positive function which is necessary and sufficient to maintain the social equilibrium. By conferring finality to established values, religion becomes a powerful means to social control and, therefore, of maintaining the established order, whatever this may be. This is the reason why Machiavelli whose interest is in the ruler recommends the use or rather the abuse of religion as an effective means of repression, while Karl Marx whose sympathies are populist recommends its abrogation. Religion in this view is conservative, reactionary and opposed to salutary change. Some biblical passages quoted in support of this view of religion are duly famous. The locus classicus is the following;
For the sake of the Lord, accept the authority of every social institution (1 Peter 2:3).
Remind them that it is their duty to be obedient to the officials and representatives of the government (Titus 3:1).
You must all obey the governing authorities. Since all government comes from God, the civil authorities were appointed by God, and so anyone who resists authority is rebelling against God’s decision, and such an act is bound to be punished (Romans 13:1 – 7).
There are of course problems raised by this passage, and people of the 21 st Century may be even embarrassed by it. Is a government through a bloody coup d’ etat to be respected as from God? Is apartheid regime God ordained? Are protests against dictatorship, genocide and even taking up arms as guerrilla against a regime of organized injustice or legalized brigandage an offence against God? Happily, this is not the only role of religion in society. In fact, the functional explanation is only a partial aspect.
There is another function of religion, a dynamic one also namely, the prophetic revolutionary aspect. The case of King David as a sinner and the appearance of Nathan the prophet who rebuked the royalty and brought him to repentance, is a case in point. Likewise, is Saul in the bible an incident for study. Religion makes pale the cheeks of rulers by its frozen admonition. In the first place, religion has a transcendental reference. It has a system of values, and values are ideals rather than facts; they say how men and women should live rather than how they actually live. Now, this concentration on what should be rather than on what actually is the case, gives religion a great moral advantage, and a moral superiority over the goings-on in society.
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Through it, men are in possession of a higher court of appeal standing above the established institutions of the society. The individual is enabled to challenge and criticize policies, personalities and events by comparing them with ideals, ideals provided by religion, ideals to which they are necessarily inferior.
The prophetic function of religion enables us, if need be, to say no to the given, to escape from the tyranny of the facts and from the tyranny of public opinion. That the individual can, as it were, appeal to Caesar, that he has direct access to the transcendent, that is to say, to God, or to his conscience, enhances his dignity and emphasizes his autonomy. To that extent, he is independent of the society and can not only take his distance from it and criticize it, but also assert his rights vis-à-vis its demands. What we are saying is that religion makes room for protests, for non-conformity, for rebellion. Through its prophetic role, religion encourages revolt in certain circumstances.
If the facts of society compare too unfavourably with the ideals on which religion focuses our critical view, then we should improve them, which always means change them. The revolutionary character of religion is too obvious to need further commentary. The prophetic function is, therefore, both vital for the survival of freedom and the individual in society and, through constant criticism, instrumental to the raising of standards in society itself.
Application of Principles of Righteousness in Governance From the foregoing, Catholic social thought teaches that certain permanent principles are derivable and are to be considered as necessary ingredients for the establishment of a just and egalitarian society where human beings live in dignity and have their basic rights guaranteed. These are applicable to Nigeria as foundations for good governance, righteousness and justice, which are the foundation for peace.
The Meaning of the State • The State is not the ‘presence of God’ • The ideology of power leads to the degeneration of the State. • The individualistic enlightenment interpretation of the State is to be rejected. Righteousness in Governance 175
• According to the Christian understanding, the State stands in the service of order. It is the supreme guarantor of the ‘common good’ founded on might and right and power.
The Governmental Authority • God himself from whom all power stem, is the ultimate author of governmental authority. • Since the State is the supreme guardian of ‘the common good’, its power must be uniform, comprehensive, sovereign and coercive. • The original bearer of governmental authority is the nation as a whole, that is, the politically unified national group. • The tasks of governmental authority, which are legislative, executive power, and administration of justice arise from the end of the State. These tasks are fulfilled when citizens enjoy the protection and fostering of the moral order; provision of the welfare state; guarantee of internal security and guarantee of external security in the community of nations.
It seems daring but would be appropriate to draw up a ‘Politicians Code of Character’ for bearers of governmental authority and these include: strength of character; profession of fundamental moral values; a gift for creative combinations; objectivity, soberness, equanimity; willingness to serve; courage to make unpopular decisions and willingness to cooperate.
The Rights and Duties of Citizens Since people are the original bearers of governmental authority, crucial rights are due to the citizens, all citizens are entitled to contribute to the ‘Common Good’ of the State, all citizens have a legal claim to equality before the law, citizens have a right to resistance and may use them against oppression and injustice, the fulfilment of the laws of the State is a moral duty. Others are love of one’s fatherland as an obligation, there must be willingness to sacrifice on the part of citizens, the common good precedes the private good.
The Relation between Church and State • The mission of the Church is to proclaim the salvation given to us in Christ, which does not exclude but fully includes service in the social realm, • The proclamation of salvation and preaching the Gospel is a must.
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• Advocacy of the rights and dignity of man is a mandate. • It is the task of the Church to proclaim the fundamental moral values in pluralistic society whether convenient or inconvenient to status quo. • The Church cannot take a stance on those economic and political questions on which Christians and believers, without prejudice to their faith, can be of differing opinions. • The competence of individual believers or groups of beliefs is to be distinguished from the responsibility of the magisterial office in the governmental and social realms. • The Christian is able to be present and effective in the modern religious and ideological pluralism only in so far as “the witness of Christians” allows.
Although State and Church are distinct in their origin, end, and constitution, and in their proper spheres are mutually independent and self-governing, they are nevertheless related to one another in many ways and obligated to collaborate for the good of mankind.
Conclusion We have come to the conclusion of this reflection on righteousness, which is justice in governance. We assert that here on earth, it is possible for the leader and the ruler to be just and fair in his dealings with fellow human beings. Power is not absolute, even if some officials of government think that it is eternal. Power is transient, although very tempting and perhaps also dangerous to use. One must therefore lead with prayer and fear of the Lord.
Unless the lord builds the house they labour in vain who build it. Unless the Lord watch over the city, the watchman watches in vain (Psalm 127).
• The righteous in governance shall protect the dignity and worth of every individual person since all are equal before God, created in his own image and likeness.
• Option for the poor is a good measure for righteous leadership, for God is always on the side of the oppressed and of the poor.
• Love and justice are linked Righteousness in Governance 177
• The promotion of the common good is a high ethical criterion in good governance.
• Democratic principles of participation and avoidance of autocracy and dictatorship are sure paths to greatness. History does not forget easily and may make or mar one perpetually.
• Economic justice is the basis of all equity and the measure of impact of good governance. In all things the question may be: “how does it benefit the poor?”
• Stewardship remains a fundamental goal for all shall render account both here and hereafter of their good and bad deeds and there is payment or punishment for good or evil done.
• The promotion of peace remains the highest good and the hallmark of a true and righteous leader.
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Grassroots Women Animation and Conscientization ... 179
Chapter Seventeen
Grassroots Women Animation and Conscientization Towards Political Awareness and Democratic Behaviour and Action 1
No one with the right perception of things would doubt the efficacy of such action as the convention of our DEC grassroots women animation and conscientization programme aimed this year at creativity political awareness and democratic behaviour among women. This is an enlightenment and a call to respond to the needs of the moment in the Nigeria social-political environment
As you very well know, the context of Nigeria is that of a society in need of the ingredients of a modern nation within the comity of nations. We lack a democratic government; we lack an accountable government; we lack the political Virtues in many of our politicians, namely prudence, justice, tolerance and patriotism; we lack a sound economic and socio-political environment which is actually the best breeding ground for economic success, namely a free and fair environment for the competition of talents, goods and productive factors which are the basis of a successful economy; we lack fiscal and budgetary discipline in the hands of technocrats who at the moment manage our affairs; we lack discipline and patience which the so- called Asian Tigers, less privileged and endowed as we are, are currently using to attract investors, investments and an accountable and functional socio- economic and socio-political climate for the benefit of the majority if its citizens; The virtues of honesty and transparency seem not to be written in bold letters in the dictionary of those who have usurped power and the administration of this God-most-blessed nation called Nigeria
Permit me to state categorically before you all that we have a great country, richly endowed with human and material resources, a country with one of the great beauties of geography, aesthetics, cultures, traditions, varieties and multi-plural ingredients which any modern nation today called great has as its credentials. Unfortunately, Nigeria's assets and blessings are turning as it
1 Ike O.F.; Keynote address presented at the Grassroots Women Workshop for Democracy organized by Development Education Centre in Enugu, 1996.
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were as a curse against its people. We are not a nation of complainants more than any other people anywhere else in the world could also be described, we are not a nation of thieves or dishonest bunch who are the worse in this business known to all children of Adam. My guess is that Nigerians, and by this I mean the majority of the people have by their apathy, lack of interest, lack of demand for responsible leadership, by acquiescence, by keeping quiet, by not shouting and crying foul, by not being involved, by keeping aloof and politically inactive, given room to that 0d and notorious virus which makes it possible for semi-illiterates, mediocres, never do wells and their likes to emerge into the forefront of power.
This nation would assume its pride and dignity if the citizens of this great country woke up from their comatose disinterestedness in the political, social and general welfare of the nation at large and demanded for their birthright. We have been told several times that bad politicians are voted by many good citizens who do not go out to vote at all. We have been reminded that if politics is looked upon as dirty, this has been largely so because we allowed dirty people to run it. The time has come for all men and women of goodwill of this country to recall that we have no other country, land of birth and origin as this our beloved Nigeria.
We must therefore salvage the land together. What such an orientation involves is mass mobilization of men, women and youth in the tasks ahead. What this involves as well is that our so called "good people", intelligentsia, students, men, women and children arise from their apathy and lethargy and address for the common good of everyone, the issues facing all of us squarely today in the face, namely breakdown of law and order, insecurity, hunger, and the total collapse of every imaginable social or institutional structure. How could any nation survive for a day longer when dreams disappear and citizens feel unconcerned, preferring instead to abandon their own countries for another person’s country?
The context of Nigeria is such that the majority of the Victims of this complete disorientation, corruption, greed and poverty are women, you, our mothers, sisters and wives, you our beauty who carry us in your womb, nurture us into growth and adulthood and actually make the person, the family and the nation. The most marginalized in the present status quo are our women and their children. What a tragedy?
The present military dispensation in Nigeria has said that they are serious to allow democracy a chance in Nigeria. People doubt them because we have Grassroots Women Animation and Conscientization ... 181 been told such ‘white’ lies before, so many go their way, neglecting their political heritage as the proverb says. Once beaten twice shy. But no, let the word go forth, that today, here in Nigeria, our grassroots women have arisen, never ever again to go back to their task of forming the backbone upon which a veritable democracy can grow in the land of our birth. Let us think about this for a second.
Before the white-man came, all of us lived in our mangrove or savannah forests doing grassroots politics on the level of the Umunna, the Village Square, the Age Grades, the Town Union, the Clan solidarity and the traditional institutions of political engineering. Even as we write, those institutions are still in place in our nooks and corners. Ask our sons and daughters who live in Lagos what. They achieve in such dehumanizing and terrible urbanized centres with all its anonymity, scantiness, squalor and dehumanization? Nothing! I say nothing for in those large world cities, the human being is a pawn in the hands of a chaotic spiral force of hijacked dreams and realized ambitions to true personhood and dignifying existence.
The Development Education Centre in Enugu has discovered the futility of it all, and has gained the wisdom and courage to take the bull by the horns and call on our women, especially those in the grassroots to arise, to take power into their hands for the good of their children and the nation at large.
This call which is a challenge is the task of the present. The trial is worth it. Worse is the inability to try at all. Worse is the defeat even before the war has started. I call on our women to listen to the DEC and accept the challenge to democracy, to accountability, to free economic enterprise, to good governance and to patriotism. It is not an exercise in futility. Worse off are those who did nothing. To posterity, DEC can say, ill our time and place, we tried to reshape the face of Nigeria and the face of our Women. After all, here on earth, the task to "subdue the earth and rule the earth" has been given to us humans. We cannot give up this vocation. Now, victory is already ours, for the man or the woman dies who keeps quiet in the midst of tyranny.
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Transformational Leadership and the Challen ges of Governance… 183
Chapter Eighteen
Transformational Leadership and the Challenges of Governance in Enugu State 1
Sustainable Development and Vision 20:2020
• The objective of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020, which is to chart a road map to a rapid and sustainable socio-economic development of the country, and by that, place her within the bracket of the top 20 largest economies of the world by the year 2020 is a laudable Vision for the country.
Transformational Leadership Is Key
• There is no atom of doubt that achieving vision 2020 is worthy of pursuit, but not merely by lip—service since we have talked enough. Transformational Leadership and visionary human agents working in concert and as a winning TEAM is called for as key agents to the realization of this.
Need for Moral Rebirth
• A moral rebirth of the country and the promotion of a culture of integrity constitute essential ingredients in the project of achieving sustainable social, environmental, ethical and economic recovery of Nigeria.
Ethical Conduct Is Critical
• It should be emphasized that ethical conduct in the public and private domain and character formation of the agents of State, especially the drivers of government policies are critical in the realization of the goals of
1 Ike O.F.; PowerPoint presentation at the Enugu State National Productivity day celebration.
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this Vision 20:2020 project in Nigeria and in the different States of the Country.
Era of Consolidation
A vision needs measurable action, strategic planning, critical evaluation and constant monitoring. The period starting 29 th May, 2011 until 29 th May 2015 is the focus for this reflection which we call the ‘Era of Consolidation’.
Challenges On Public Office Holders
• There are challenges which confront public office holders today and they are immense. Society has advanced through the tools of globalization and the information and communication technologies ask critical questions, seek for honest answers and give its judgement of history on the ‘dramatis personae’ .
No Hiding Place for Non-Performance
• There is hardly any hiding place again in the world for non-performers, looters of public funds and human rights Violators. Heads of governments and public officials of all shades are arraigned before the International Criminal Courts; national financial and criminal courts and other judicial instances for an account of their stewardship to the full glare of the world. Civil society; whistle blowers make bad governance unacceptable and punishable. No one has, therefore, any reason to fail, not here and not now.
Failure Has No Friends
• Public office holders live under intense pressure watched by everybody from journalists to cynics and followers. Their names and credibility are constantly on the line and they have just one option, namely to PERFORM with SUCCESS. Unfortunately, FAILURE has no friends.
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Eradicating Poverty Calls for New Leadership Models
• The real and virtual poverty imposed upon Nigerians by the pre— colonial, colonial, military, feudal and global economic and political realities challenges politicians in the 21 st century to a new kind of ethical behaviour and leadership model.
Times Have Changed
• Times have changed and patience is running out on tolerance. The social space filled with poverty, ignorance and lack of access allows new contradictions to emerge: terrorism, cultism, crime, violence and various forms of self- determination attempts which seek for relevance, albeit illegitimately. The “Arab Spring” and “Boko Haram” phenomenon in Nigeria describe it all.
Accountable and Responsive Government
• Politicians must fulfil election promises to the electorate; they must innovate products that impact positively on people and satisfy stakeholders legitimate demands. Since the State assumes the role of the ‘Sovereign’ and controls the ‘Commonwealth’, public servants must be accountable and avoid the inherent temptation to steal, embezzle public funds and abuse their office for mere personal or narrow gains. Lies have short legs.
Servant Leaders in Good Conscience
• Public Office Holders swear an oath and oblige their consciences to serve their people as servant leaders to the best of their ability. They do this by creating an environment for quality education for its citizens; providing good healthcare programmes especially for the poor; inventing long term sustainable socio- economic products for integral development and democracy dividends that impact upon job creation and overall wealth generation for the youths.
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Engaging Stakeholders Through Dialogue
• Politicians and Public Servants are challenged to stay engaged with all sectors of the society; elicit respect from the leaders of the people, obtain co-operation and reliability from even the hard-nosed political opponents and fulfil the expectations of religious and moral leaders of the community.
• People’s needs are insatiable and expectations on public office holders are sometimes both unrealistic and too much demanded at a time. Public officials, therefore, must engage with stakeholders on possibilities, limitations and impossibilities around the theme of people’s expectation and the realities on ground. Constant dialogue, forum for town hall meetings, nearness and accessibility to the citizens helps interaction. Arrogance and aloofness negate the spirit of dialogue and democratic ideals. Religious Leaders Point Out Some of the Problems
• The facts on ground show that; “Our nation continues to drift from one avoidable crisis to another. The spectre of economic stagnation, political disintegration and social unrest stares us in the face. Warnings from many angles, seem to be falling on deaf ears. Those who have volunteered to rule us are still to prove to the nation that they have vision, will and moral credentials to do what needs to be done” (CBCN).
• “The people are paying the high price of poverty, misery, disease, anxiety and despair. In the name of God, let the nation finds its way quickly back to the sure course of meaningful democratic government” (of. Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN); ‘Save the Family and save the Nation’). The State Exits to Serve the ‘Common Good’
• The original essence, purpose and ‘raison d’etre’ for the existence of government anywhere in the world is to provide for the ‘Common Good’ of all of its citizens. If a government cannot provide for the common good of its citizens, that government has lost its reason to be Transformational Leadership and the Challen ges of Governance… 187
and the citizens are free to disown it and work for its change with every legitimate means, including civil disobedience.
‘Common Good’ is Not Mere Selfish or Individual Good
• One can recognize the ‘Good’ at its various levels: spiritual good, material good, intellectual good, corporal good, habitual good, occasional good, intrinsic and non-intrinsic good, earthly and celestial good, moral good which is characterized into perfective good, delectable or pleasurable good and useful or physical good and finally the ‘Common Good’ which is distinguished from the individual good.
The Common Good Defined
• The Common Good is the sum total of all the ingredients that make for a stable and healthy society. “It involves those conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily” ( Gaudium et Spes, No 26 ).
• The Common Good includes the provision by government of access to education, basic needs, health, infrastructure, access to resources, justice, fair treatment, security, guarantee of the rule of law, constitutional freedoms and democratic rights. Responsibility of Citizens
• Likewise, citizens are bound to support and collaborate with their legitimate government and show love of fatherland (patriotism), respect for the laws of the land; respect for government and the leaders of the state; willingness to sacrifice; payment of rightfully legislated taxes; avoidance of corrupt practices which undermine the progress and ecology of a sane and free society; protection of the environment and security of their nation whenever called upon to do so.
Corruption — The Bane of Nigeria
• However, one factor that will determine the success or otherwise in the attainment of the common good, is the problem of corruption.
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Corruption is a serious vice that pervades all spheres and sectors of national life. No meaningful development can be made in Nigeria except if the cankerworm of corruption is eradicated.
No Progress Without Ethical Strength
• It has been observed that a world that lacks ethical strength cannot promote technical progress or economic development on a sustainable basis. No civilization or technology is built in a nation of people who are not truthful, not hardworking and not united. • The incidence of corruption in Nigeria has had severe impacts on the poverty levels and compromised the development of an effective culture of integrity among the citizens.
Material Welfare Is Not Enough
• Materialism alone cannot sustain even material welfare. The British colonizer, Lord Lugard and his team whose vision in 1909 for Enugu was a future of material prosperity - based on coal and rail, achieved these but Enugu, the administrative capital of Eastern Nigeria hosted a war for three years (1967 - 1970), with devastating effects on the social, economic, religious and political terrain of the region and its peoples.
Spiritual Strength Is Useful
• But we now know that the envisaged material boom of Lord Lugard did not quite materialize or has not been sustained. Ironically, this failure has come about partly due to the prolonged absence of a complementary moral/spiritual dimension to these efforts.
The Consequences of Corruption
Corruption has led to the collapse of our prosperity ambitions by the metastasizing of this cancer called corruption. Inch by inch, it has blurred our conscience. It has devalued the wisdom of our elders and violated the innocence of our youths. This has resulted in the setback of the country, noticeable in the following areas: Transformational Leadership and the Challen ges of Governance… 189
‹ General dilapidation of infrastructure (roads, water & sanitation, educational facilities, health care system etc.)
‹ Negotiation of ethical behaviours, societal norms & values, morality and integrity
‹ Corruption has crippled trade by destroying trust and raising the costs of trust. It has paralyzed development, permeated the army, the police, the government at every level and the generality of citizens. Like leprosy, it has eaten away at every individual conscience, institution and even seized the very engine of public service.
Solution Is Zero Tolerance for Corruption
° Government in some cases has become an instrument of corruption and personal ruler—ship in many states. The continued existence of corruption threatens the very foundations of the State and the people. By tolerating corruption, we dance “at the brinks of disaster” and “fiddle while Rome burns”. A ZERO tolerance for corruption is the only way out and must be confronted headlong. There is unfortunately no alternative.
Ethical Leadership Is Transformational
° Ethical leadership confronts corruption headlong because it is transformational. Like a business strategy, it identifies the root causes of bad governance; determines human potentials for service and appoints them to promote sustainable, competitive advantage of state organs (innovation, trust, stakeholder satisfaction and reliability) despite fierce competition from political opponents.
Less Talk, More Action
° Ethical leadership is transformational because it is having the ability to talk less and do more and is action packed and bears trust which is stable and resilient.
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Transformational Leaders Build Trust
° Transformational leaders build high trust and high performance because they are convincing, have knowledge to run institutions, nations and organizations for competitive excellence by being firm and principled.
Transformational Leaders Add Value
° Transformational leadership offers sharp examples as to how values in the hearts of people not only guide day to day activities but gets them pursue strategy consistently, reliably and flexibly in the face of unforeseen events.
Transformational Leaders Are Principled
° A CEO who sticks by his principles, even at the toughest times earns trust and credibility. The ability to say NO can often times be considered a political virtue.
° The true test of an ethical leadership is how it behaves in tough times when unethical behaviour is tempting.
° Ethical leadership has competitive advantage if it is adopted for its own sake, not as a means to an end.
° Ethical behaviour arises deep from within people — from positive motivation rather than negative regulation (you cannot legislate against dishonesty. It is a value from within).
Transformational Leaders Lead by Example
° Transformational leadership applies less ‘Regulation’ and more ‘Inspiration’ and is founded on vision, character and self-discipline. The best lessons are not mere words but testimonies of life.
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The Best Business Is Ethical
° The best form of governance is self-governance. The best business is Ethics. The best government is transformational because it impacts on the largest number of the population.
Governance is about Values and they Matter
° Governance is about values. Values are a set of core beliefs as to how we should or ought to behave in a broad range of situations.
° A leader’s greatest challenge is to embed values in the organization’s culture. It is dangerous to ignore this challenge.
Leadership Demands Reliability and Trust
° Reliability is one of the most important factors in business and leadership. Consistency is essential in a competitive environment.
° Trust is the bond of society. Trust is hard to build and easy to break down. Deception is the most dangerous enemy of trust.
° Placing trust is risky, not trusting is also risky; distrust is part of authentic trust.
° Deception is the prime enemy of trust, but any act of bad management erodes trust. The best checks on deception are active enquiry, checking of information, accessing evidence and accessing whether good reasons for trust exists.
° A business culture that actively rejects deception will nurture trust. Team Members Use ‘We’ And Not Just ‘I’ Expressions
° Football is won by a team playing in sportsman spirit of unity. ’ Igwe bu ike’ is a philosophy of life in Igbology . Team concern is ethical. Members of a great team do things for the members of the group. They have ‘WE’
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intentions and not just “I” expressions. Good teams make sacrifice for mutual benefits.
° Cohesion pushes productivity. Belonging boosts identity; bonded interdependence leads to well-being and high performance and sharing information is strength and not weakness.
° Generalized reciprocity is the most reliable kind of trust in business. Collaboration of ministries enhances cohesion.
° Normative trust is about trusting one another to do what is right. Ethical trust cuts transaction costs, simplifies complexity, facilitates creativity, networking and membership pride. Principles Matter in Governance
° To make a stand for what is right for others is one of the most self- defining things we as LEADERS can do.
° Time is of essence in ethical leadership and management is by example.
° A spontaneous sense of obligation by the leader to do the best for the people is a key factor for sustainable competitive advantage.
° Good leaders’ co-ordinate people and resources through inspiration.
° The leader’s own personal ethics and trustworthiness are essential to his tasks.
Think Strategy, Think Structure, Think Integral
° Ethical, leadership implies ability to: ‘Think Strategy’, Think Structure, ‘Think Culture’ and ‘Think Integral’. The whole is bigger than the parts. Integral development considers all the relevant elements in policy, planning and implementation.
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° Transformational leadership deals with the human quality. It deals also with numbers, considers impact and uses measurable targets which are result oriented. Governments are elected or re-elected because their actions speak for themselves. People believe in what they see and they vote governments that deliver.
° To be competitive, you must be innovative or else you die.
° Good strategy is a never-ending preoccupation. It is long term, sustainable in competitive advantage and is not short cut.
The Spirit of Enugarians
‹ ‘Enugarians ’ are a people known for their rugged spiritual strength and their natural resistance to flashy superficiality and consumer materialism. They are orderly, trust-worthy, quiet, less greedy and docile but they fight vigorously when trampled upon.
‹ The spirit of Enugu from the Coal mining era has remained a sense of dignifying hard work; poverty with dignity; simplicity; not given to rioting tendencies, not stone throwing mob, truthful; respectful of the common good and public property; earning a salary because of justifiable service rendered; seeking for the progress of the common good and not just the individual good; Protecting the environment by disposing trash responsibly; involved in micro and macro enterprise initiatives to avoid unemployment and enhance self-help instead of over-dependence on government for everything.
‹ The Enugu Spirit includes the firm ability to say ‘WA WA’, which means a DOUBLE ‘CAPITAL NO’ to vices of greed, unnecessary accumulation of wealth from State coffers, stealing, corruption, laziness, nepotism, mediocrity, irresponsibility, irreligion and irredentism.
Governance Policies Are Driven by Citizen’s Needs
‹ Experts affirm that the only sustainable leadership model is transformational leadership and this is ethical leadership. The Leader says
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what he means and does what he says. He listens to the many advisers but acts in the overall interest of the common good. The constant question is: “HOW DOES THIS POLICY BENEFIT THE GENERALITY OF THE CITIZENS?” “HOW DOES IT HELP THE POOR, PROMOTE HUMAN QUALITY, SERVE LIFE, ENHANCE LIFE, PROMOTE LIFE AND PROGRESS SOCIETY?”
Prayer Is Key
° “This is the moral challenge for our leaders. It is the knowledge of the fact that there is a judgment of history here on earth and hereafter for every deed, commission and even for omissions. Awesome, but this is why we think, act and pray for “Without God, we can do nothing.” (John 15:5).
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Chapter Nineteen
Everything has its Time; the State of the State 1
It is worthwhile that I begin this write up with a quotation from the Old Testament, the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3: 1-21. When I accepted to take up this task, I was very conscious of the variegated problems facing us as a nation and as a state, the varying interests, the political groupings and pressures, the various levels of intellectual and social persuasions, the economic disparities and the fact that my audience is anything but homogenous.
The difficulties are compounded when one considers the umbrella under which and to whom this work is precisely being addressed: though others may benefit from it; WAWA SOCIAL CLUB OF NIGERIA. The usage of the word WAWA created difficulties which are linguistic, geographical and geo- political. What is WAWA? Who is a WAWA? What distinguishes WAWA’s from none—WAWA’S? Are the WAWA people in a WAWA territory? What mores and indeed what yardsticks defining it? These questions have become lately insistent within our context so much that some already ask: What price a nation and a people? What does the claim # I belong to the WAWA tribe of clan or nation or people mean to the individual, and when did it begin to mean anything? Can we talk about a WAWA people outside of Igboland? Are the Ebenebe, the Awka, the Amawbia, the Idoma who linguistically use the word WAWA to emphases ‘No’, just as the Nsukka, the Enugu and some parts of Abakaliki also WAWA people?
Where is the dividing line? Can they be upheld by objective test? If Ebonyi still be WAWA “extra Cevitatis”? These, are unavoidable details of the version in which I have posed the question, a version that is meant to be summative.
In a task like this, one cannot but undertake the method we have adopted, to clarify the concepts, to define, redefine and reverse the frames of reference? To think or rather rethink on our assumptions, claims or prejudices and base
1 Ike O.F.; Lecture delivered at the Macdevos Hotel Enugu under the Umbrella of the WAWA United Social Club of Nigeria on the 29 th of December, 1995.
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them on facts and reason, not on illusions or sentiments. The time has come to search for the relevance and adaptability of concepts we assumed but which today need to stand the test of its claims and assumptions or disappear before the crucibles of the philosophic inquiry and probe.
Is the WAWA phenomenon a result of the collective mind, Or will? Is it a coerced state, the objective of an individual will, Or furthermore a passive, unquestioned habit of cohabitation due to proximate and contiguous existence? Or a rigorous conclusion that derives from history? Geographical contiguity is unfortunately no answer. And history, will definitely agree with me is “still unwritten” as we discuss, it is still in the making. Yet, I am not sure that we have the luxury to shy away from these questions. In fact, it is my firm belief that the answers determine the rational foundation or disintegration of the topics and concept under survey. To shy away therefore from the reasoning is to run into the suspicion and possibility that “WAWA” is a mere sentimental concept in any practical advantages for its occupants. Like Wole Soyinka once said “We are entering, it must be apparent by now, the possibility-not of a discovery- but a recovery of certain historical truth- that nation—status has never been an absolute or a constant, that it has ever followed the politics of conflict interest, alliances, power and even accident”.
At the end of our inquiry, we may perhaps discover that WAWAISM and to be a WAWA is a “philosophy” which characterizes any people, any situation and anywhere, where there are minorities of majorities who are neglected, oppressed, unjustly treated and reduced in their individual and collective dignity by the denials of rights etc. This point needs to be taken seriously in a global perspective. (ref. lecture: When is a Nation? At the Oxford and Cambridge Club of Nigeria, delivered at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) IV, Lagos on 7 th June, 1994).
Optimistic Moments of the 20 th Century: We owe ourselves a reckoning as we approach the end of the year, the end of the 20 th Century and open a new millennium chapter in world history. There have been many exciting and encouraging developments in the 20 th Century worthy of reckoning.
The 20 th Century has seen the invention and development of the aeroplane and of space travel. We have seen the widespread use of electricity, not just for lighting, heating and cooling but also for making possible other revolutionary invention like television and computers.
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The 20 th Century has conquered many diseases and through the discovery of the DNA have begun to understand the nature of life itself by contributing to the greater happiness and fulfillment of many-women, men and children.
For us in Africa, Malaria, Typhoid, dysentery, elephantiasis, tuberculosis, sickle cell anaemia etc. once diseases shrouded in our huts and hovels and villages in superstitions stupor have been brought into curative, explanatory and liberating medical practice. The development of International Organizations from the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conferences which led to the International Court of Justice, through the League of Nations to the United Nations, the UNESCO and other International bodies-has led to International Co-operation in many fields. External Colonialism was gradually dismantled, even in neo—colonialism took over and internal colonialism continued.
The acceptance of the universal declaration on Human Rights is of special relevance for Africans where a 3 pronged slave business (Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Saharan and Trans-India ocean) flourished for over 400 years killing almost the African Dignity, the African Soul and the African personality. Likewise, of special mention is the modern Olympic games. Except for the years 1916, 1940 and 1944 during two world wars, the Olympic games have been held regularly since 1896, demonstrating that the people of the planet Earth can compete in friendship in spite of their many differences. Our century has been very fruitful in its practical discoveries — its magnificent institutions of political and economic liberty, for example. But it has been spectacularly wrong in its underlying philosophy of life. An age wrong about GOD is almost certain to be wrong about man.
The spirit of our age, of this century, was aptly described in poetic caricature by the Briton, W.B. Yeats who was very much influenced by the 19 th Century Nihilist Philosopher Friedreich Nietzsche where he wrote:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre; the falcon cannot hear the falcores things fall apart the centre cannot hold mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. W.B. Yeats
History books tell their story and we read them. We compare and contrast them as well as make judgments. No other age has witnessed so much bloodshed, so many wars, too much inconsistency, deceit, crisis, brutality and
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death as our own. A few years towards the year 2000, as we approach the third millennium, history dictates that we take notes and records to survey where we started, where we stand and where we are going. In the words of my old Uncle, Ozor Neife Ozoike, whom I consider a sage, although he never sat in a classroom:
“People cannot look forward to posterity, if they do not look backward to their ancestors, to their history”. This century was history’s bloodiest. When we look back to earlier years the long screech of falling bombs cost over 70 million lives in Europe, Africa and Asia. No other century knew about the bomb; about world war one and world war two; the Inter — continental ballistic missiles, the SS 20’s to 22; the A-Bomb, H-Bomb, N-Bomb now arrived to create a shrill of fear and death in the hovels, huts and homes of people worldwide.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still fresh in our minds for those among us who are not drunk, or numb. The millions of massacred Jews and other minorities are daily recalled as a warning to those who care. But who really care? The communist revolutions in Russia in 1917 with over 20 million dead and the Chinese Revolution with over 100 million prisoners of war in labour camps everywhere in Asia, Africa, Europe, America since 1900. And talking of children Via hunger, disease, homelessness and full blown wars as our century. The United Nations statistics state that daily 40,000 children die in our world.
Since the apparent collapse of the colonial era and its replacement with neo- colonialism, millions of children, God’s children in Africa have been sent to unwarranted death, The concepts are still alive in our head and memories The long process of struggle against the character of exploitation, oppression and cultural manipulation have been found in the progressive rebellion against the geopolitics of the oppressors in the cases of: Biafra, Eritrea; Chad; Mozambique; Angola; Rwanda; Congo, Uganda; Sudan; Somali; Ethiopia; Liberia; Sierra- Leone; Central Africa Republic; South—Africa among others. The results have been catastrophic and extremely aggravating.
Excruciating hunger and tyranny, political instability, natural disasters, uncontrollable and incurable diseases; corruption in all directions; mismanagement of resources and personnel abuse of state power, Urban and Rural Migrations, demographic changes, traumatic ideological resentments to the left or to the right; the secular crisis of the conditions of material and spiritual life for the people; social insecurity; mass—media manipulation of Everything has its Time; The State of the State 199 both the elite and the misinformation of the generality of the populace. This geostrategic destabilization of the people was begun by external colonialists and continued by glorified feudal Lords within.
The injustice of the entire system whether economic, national, social, religious, cultural or political — all these come to the fore as we x-ray the 20 th Century. But how did humanity come so low? What happened to our era compared to other previous historical epochs? How come that peaceful means were tried and exhausted before large portions of the people arrived at the painful conclusion that there was no avenue open for the dignity, and welfare of the majority of the population other than war, confusion and near anarchy?
Why has it been difficult to achieve social justice, political participation, cultural dignity and national liberation for the people?
Why is it that our intellectuals praise and prefer international capitalism or communism when these models have failed to produce economic welfare in virtually all African nation-states? These systems have in fact continued to undermine the developmental prospects of our countries through the wild fluctuation in the so-called world market of our exports, through the unequal exchange in value of our products in comparison with the industrial products of technologically advanced countries; through the low investment rates of our export—oriented private enterprise and their evasion of internal capital investment, and lately through the unbearable burden of our external debt.
Finally, how come that despite the unquantifiable progress in humanity’s technical and information machinery with a new wealth of resources, educational and industrial, we are not able yet to arrive at the new societal foundation with four calabashes in 4 pillars to support the edifice of a new world, which would yield the much desired dignity, self-respect, mutual equality and co-existence for everybody, namely: a) Mixed economy in a liberal but socially teleguided social market economy; b) Cultural integrity; c) International sovereignty, co-existence; d) Participatory democracy or political pluralism (self-determination).
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These questions and many more are being asked by people everywhere. I ask them today and have found one cogent answer in What I consider the “philosophy of Nihilism”.
The Philosophy of Nihilism What is Nihilism? The word comes from the Latin and means literally “nothingness”.
According to Peter A. Angeles in the ‘Dictionary of Philosophy’, nihilism in epistemology is:
1. The denial of any objective and real ground or state of truth; 2. The theory that nothing is knowable. All knowledge is illusory, worthless, meaningless, relative and insignificant. 3. No knowledge is possible. Nothing can be known. 4. The psychological and philosophical state in which there is a loss of all ethical, religious, political, social values.
5. The sceptical denial of all that is regarded as real/unreal, knowledge/error, being/non—being, illusory/non-illusory; the denial of the value of all distinctions.
Nihilism in ethics refers to the theory “that moral values cannot be justified in any way — not by reason, by a God, by intuition, by conscience, or by authority of the state, or law. Moral values are:
a) Expressions of arbitrary and capricious behaviour or b) Expressions of loose feelings and reasonless social conditioning; and c) They are worthless, meaningless and irrational (ibid)
Metaphysical Nihilism is the theory that: a) the universe is meaningless and without a purpose; b) human life and its activities are of no value or significance; c) Nothing is worth existing for (ibid).
Political Nihilism is belief that social organization is so corrupt that its destruction is desirable. Sometimes couples with a form of anarchism whereby no constructive alternative form of organization is deemed possible and terrorism, violent revolutionary activities, assassination are advocated” (Ibid).
Everything has its Time; The State of the State 201
The Greek philosopher Georgia’s propounded an extreme form of scepticism sometimes referred to as nihilism , which denied the possibility of knowledge and doubted whether anything existed at all. The main arguments are:
Nothing can be said to exist (The stronger nihilistic version: Nothing exists). If anything did exist, we would not be able to know it, and if we were able to know it we would not be able to communicate it” (Ibid p.259). Having used the word scepticism, it may be useful to clarify its origins as a
1. “ state of doubting ”; 2. A state of suspension of judgment; 3. A state of belief or unbelief, Scepticism ranges from complete, total disbelief in everything, to a tentative doubt in a process of reaching certainty.
Nihilism in the Nigerian Society • Failed leadership (Chinua Achebe’s position); • Failed orientation—who will bell the Cat; • Failed utilization of resources and personnel; • The seeming hopelessness of the generality of the people; • Deceit as a way of life/truth no more; • The cult of mediocrity and meanness; • Federal character as injustice/oppression; • Tribalism and ethnicism; • Corruption of the entire system (educational, civil service, military; police, business/industry, social) via bribery/inducement; • Quest for title and external names/honours; • Financial misdirection/false investments/misappropriation; • “Anything goes philosophy”. The above life-styles and world-views cannot stand the test of truth, value, liberty and future.
An age morally depraved and deceitful in its underlying philosophy of life and of God is almost certain to be wrong about man.
Awakening from Nihilism The world definitely must have drawn 4 painful lesson from ashes of the 20 th Century.
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FIRST: Even under condition of Nihilism; Fidelity to TRUTH is better than Cowardice. If we remain faithful to the truth, inner liberty is obtained.
SECOND: The boast by dictators that dictatorship is more vigorous than ‘decadent democracy’ was empty. ‘Participatory Democracy’ is better than one-man rule. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Doe, Abacha, Babangida and Buhari etc have been exposed.
Dictatorships lead to concentration camps in manifold forms — Nigeria is a case in point.
THREE: The claim that socialism is morally superior to capitalism and is better for the poor has been proven empty and we have become the witnesses. An open liberal market economy brings the best in human beings and their ingenuity more than a communist — rigid planned economic system which creates slavery, poverty, stagnation and unfreedom.
FOURTH: Vulgar relativism and its subjective culture so undermines the culture of liberty and knowledge that it is preferable to take a position on an issue than to remain neutral.
Some Lesson: 1. Truth matters. Even for those unsure whether there is a God a Truth is different from a lie. Torturers can twist your mind, even reduce you to a vegetable, but as long as you retain the ability to say YES or NO, as truth alone command, they cannot own you. 2. The prison literature of our century abundantly testifies that the endless scroll of honour in our century went to those personalities who even before the stake insisted on their identity as true men and women, refusing to compromise truth for whatever they believed, and refusing to cheapen their positions by just signing to keep quiet or tell a lie before they are freed. By accepting torture in the face of its alternative, we have such great names today as Andrew Sakharov, Maximilian Kolbe, Vaclav Havel, Anthony Enahoro, Nelson Mandela, Lech Wales, and Julius Nyerere to mention but a few.
Like Michael Novak has clearly demonstrated, to obey truth is to be free, and in certain extremities, nothing is more clear to the tormented mind, nothing Everything has its Time; The State of the State 203 more vital to the survival of self—respect, nothing so important, to one’s sense of remaining a worthy human being, of being no one’s log, part of no one’s machine, and register to death against the kingdom of lies—nothing is so dear as to hold to truth.
In Fidelity to truth lies human dignity. There is nothing recondite in this Aleksander Solzhenitsyn had this insight in 1970 upon receiving the ‘Nobel prize’ in his address: that one single truth is more powerful than all other weapons in the world, communism advancing everywhere, truth would prevail against lie: and that those who clung to truth would overturn tyranny. He was correct. We are the witnesses today. We must learn today that we human beings do not own the truth. Truth is not ‘merely subjective’, not something we make up, or choose, or cut to today’s fashions or to tomorrow’s pragmatism. We obey the truth.
We do not ‘have’ the truth. Truth owns us, truth possesses us. Truth is far larger and deeper that we are. Truth leads us where it will. It is not ours for mastering. Truth is the light of God within us. In obeying truth, a man becomes aware of participating in something greater than himself which measures his inadequacies and weaknesses.
Vulgar Relativism Challenge our Future One point that many ardent souls of our time most passionately disseminate, for example, is vulgar relativism, what I call ‘Nihilism with a happy face’. For them, it is certain that there are no truths only opinion; my opinion, your opinion. They abandon the defence of intellect. There being no purchase of intellect upon reality and nothing else is left but preference and will is everything. They retreat to romance of the will.
Vulgar relativism is an invisible gas, odourless, deadly that is now polluting every free society on earth. It is a gas that attacks the central nervous system of moral striving. This most perilous threat to free society today is neither political nor economic. It is the poisonous, corrupting culture of relativism. The people know this while the intellectuals do not. If your intellectuals better knew this, they would be sounding the alarm.
Freedom cannot grow, it cannot even survive every atmosphere or clime. In the wearying journey of human history free societies have been astonishingly rare. The ecology of liberty is more fragile than the biosphere of earth. Freedom needs clean and healthful habits sound of one human for another. Freedom needs entire rain forests of little acts of virtue. tangled loyalties,
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fierce lives, and undying commitments. Freedom needs particular institutions and these, in turn, need peoples of particular habits of the heart. There are 2 types of liberty: one a pre- critical, sober, deliberate, response and proper to adults. Liberty is not the freedom to do what you wish but it is freedom to do what you ought to do. Human beings are the only creatures on earth that do not blindly obey the laws of nature by instinct, but are free to choose to obey them with a loving will. Only humans enjoy the liberty to do what we ought to do a or alas, not to do it.
It is this second kind of liberty — critical, adult liberty that lies at the living core of the free society. It is the liberty of self-command, a tolerable mastery over one’s passions, bigotry, ignorance, and self-deceit. It is the liberty of self- government in one’s own personal life.
For how, James Madison once asked, can a people incapable of self- government in private life prove capable of it in private life? If they cannot practice self— government over their private passions, how will they practice it over the institutions of the Republic?
Can there be a free society among citizens who habitually lie, who malinger, who constantly cheat, who do not meet their responsibilities, who cannot be counted on, who shirk difficulties, who flout the law — or who prefer to live as serfs or slaves, content in their dependency, so long as they are fed and entertained?
Freedom requires the exercise of conscience; it requires the practice of those virtues that include courage, courtesy, ingenuity, respect for individual choice, a patient regard for hearing evidence on both sides of the story.
The question for the next millennium is whether we can survive the most insidious and duplicitous attack from within, from those that undermine the virtues of our people, doing in advance the work of ‘the Father of Lies’.
“There is no such thing as truth” they teach even the little one. Truth is bondage. Believe what seems right to you. There are as many truths as there are individuals. Follow your feelings. Do as you please. Get in touch with yourself. Do what feel comfortable. This is how they speak, those who prepare the jails for the next century. Those who undermine the work of truth, do the work of tyrants.
Everything has its Time; The State of the State 205
If a people composed of 100 million citizens is guarded by 100 million inner policemen — then the number of policemen of its streets may be few. For a society without inner policemen, on the contrary, there aren’t enough policemen in the world to make society civil. Can all the suffering of our ancestors on behalf of liberty have been endured that we might be as we now are? What we must do is self-control; Self-government; self-command; Openness to the future; Openness to GOD.
Nihilism builds no cities. Great cultures are built by vaulting aspiration - by the eros of truth and love and justice and realism.
We must learn again how to teach the virtues of our ancestors; the commandments of God, the teaching of Jesus Christ, which celebrate virtue, character and nobility of soul.
It is a constant struggle to maintain a free and same society on the political, cultural and economic levels. The cultural struggle will be the one that will take the stage most strongly in the new millennium.
Culture and religion go hand in hand, thus the theologian of the present and the future has enough task. He needs prophetic courage to give hope, orientation, good news and denounce evil.
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Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Edu cational Instit utions … 207
Chapter Twenty
Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Educational Institutions in Nigeria
The Reality of Conflicts and Crisis: We need not look far to discover that all around us, there are a number of conflicts and crisis of varying dimensions. It is not that these conflicts are new, perhaps they manifest other forms, but in our times and in our country, Nigeria, they seem to have assumed alarming and disproportionate levels, leading to deaths, agony, wars, stress and social disorder. We find these conflicts, call it crisis in the dialectic of contradictions between governments and their citizens, between trade unions and employers, between the social and racial groups and classes, between ethnic groups within our country and in the age gap of the youth and the elders.
The educational institutions reflect also these contradictions in manifold ways. Crises and conflicts have led to deaths in Nigeria between February and March 2000, of over one thousand innocent citizens in a faked religious crisis between Christians and Muslims over the attempted introduction of the Sharia Penal Code on the level of State Criminal Justice System in Kaduna State. The tensions, even as we share this lecture within the Nigerian State do not seem to lessen but have assumed greater dimensions, costing lives, leading to social upheaval and the general destruction of lives, property and peace of the ‘Bonum commune’.
But why, why these destructions, people ask? For people of good will everywhere, and for me as a Christian, this situation poses very important question: ‘What should be our attitude to the conflicts in which we find ourselves and which we see around us? Should we take sides or must we always remain neutral? Does it concern us? How do we manifest it? This, in my opinion is the crux of the matter during this seminar on Cultism versus Freedom and Learning in Educational Institutions . Where do we stand?
The Challenge of Truth I desire to reflect in this context on a matter, which bears great relevance to the topic under discussion. It has to do with the confusion of the present times and the lack of certainty, call it perhaps the lack of a definite and sure
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orientation to guide people’s lives and societal destiny. There were times, in those days, when people were sure of their beliefs and the customs of their fatherland. Today, it is fashionable to question everything including oneself. People these days postulate the position that; the old certainties are gone. Virtue is gone. Truth is gone. Shame is gone. Integrity and credibility are gone. The traditional answers seem redundant. New thorny questions occur with ever increasing frequency. Today, the vocabulary of right and wrong, of duty, and the neglect of duty, of sin or of shame has become difficult to use. Our age is confronted by decisions; which previous generations did not have to face. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many people have rejected the traditional sources of ethical illumination. Yet a further source of complication is the new global and pluralistic environment. Culture is a thing of the past, they believe.
John Scally in his editorial to the book: Ethics in Crisis, Veritas, 1997, Dublin p.9 demonstrated that;
Although pluralism is not new, the scale of it in contemporary society is marked by an almost bewildering proliferation of opinions, beliefs and world views. This pluralistic ambience is potentially of great value to ethics, bringing a more vigorous intellectual confrontation with basic ethical problems and a more open and public debate about ethical questions. 1
In the light of the moral diversity, and the proliferation of moral languages issuing from our plural and global world, what must remain central to humanity after the fact of relativity is acknowledged? Nothing? Something? What? Several questions emerge. Could legislation cover these ambiguities in life? Are any ethical principles universally applicable? What are they? How do we cope with the contending characteristics of our age, it’s evident cultural pluralism, it’s rapid social change, its linguistic destruction of authoritarian and centralistic claims? This is the challenge young students face as they leave home for the first time and enter tertiary institutions. Some lose all they got from their parents in one week or semester. They imbibe the new slogans, lose their roots and end up as the bird called ‘bat’, neither here nor there. Some join bad company and lose direction.
‘There is no such thing as truth’, they teach even the little ones. “Truth is bondage”. Believe what seems right to you. There are as
1 John Scally, Ethics in Crisis, Veritas, 1997, Dublin p. 9. Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Edu cational Instit utions … 209
many truths as there are individuals. Follow your feelings. Do as you please. Get in touch with yourself. Do what feel comfortable.
This is the language of the time and they speak to those who prepare the jails for the young, for those who undermine the truth and perform the work of tyrants
The Philosophy of Nihilism Permit me to offer a modest rational explanation about the confusion and the crisis in which our society finds itself. It is an excursion into philosophy. Philosophy itself is the love of wisdom and the search for meaning in life. As ‘Philos ’, love, it has continued as an art and as ‘ Sophia ’, wisdom, itself has remained a science, to provide the intellectual and rational ‘humus soil’ upon which theories and actions are founded. The problems of the present, the cultism existent in university premises and institutions of learning need rational explanation and receive such in what philosophers call Nihilism, from the Latin meaning, nothingness. Friedrich Nietzche the German philosopher of the 18 th Century spent much of his time on this idea.
It is only through Nihilism, the strange denial of truth and the faked belief in nothing positive or good that we can explain the failed leadership of the Nigeria state after forty years of survivalist Machiavellism of political experimentation. Nihilism helps us also to explain the lack of intellectual vigour in high institutions which push students, rational beings, to a cultic condescension of drinking human blood, planning evil, and lashing out harm on people instead of healing society by a productive salvific ingenuity. And what do they gain by the sadistic infliction of pain? Nothing? This nihilism manifests itself in other untruths, which has led the Nigerian State to;
• Failed orientation of values, evident in the socio-psychological, cultural and historical realities of the country. • Failed utilization of resources and personnel. • The cult of mediocrity and meanness. • Tribalism, ethnicism and religious syncretism and bigotry. • The corruption of bribery, inducement and mistruth in the civil service, the armed forces, business and industry, educational social and cultural institutions, civil and state. • The question of ‘having more’ instead of ‘becoming more’ in being and having, essence and existence, (J.P. Satre). This is noticeable in random acquisition of property even where the acquirer remains
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dwarf in his/her personal, spiritual and intellectual development, but is rich in material acquisition of titles, honour, money, and land. How fulfilled? • “The anything goes philosophy of life” lacking in any principles, standards or values, apparent lack of patriotism and coherent consistent principles of life. • Financial misdirection, false investments, misappropriation, materialism and in fact inferiority complex. These and many more are banes of our society.
How else could one explain a life-style that cannot stand the test of truth, of value, of liberty and the future, except to resort to nihilism as philosophical hermeneutic, an interpretation of a paradigmatic phenomenon of cultism and its attendant scenario?
What is Nihilism? The word Nihilism is Latin, which literally means ‘Nothingness’. According to Peter A. Angeles in the dictionary of philosophy, nihilism in epistemology is:
• The denial of any objective and real ground or state of truth. • The theory that nothing is knowable. All knowledge is illusory, worthless, meaningless, relative and insignificant. • No knowledge is possible. Nothing can be known. • The psychological and philosophical states in which there is a loss of ethical, religious, political, social values. • The sceptical denial of all that is regarded as real, unreal; knowledge, error; being, non-being; illusory, non-illusory; the denial of the value of all distinctions.
Nihilism in ethics refers to the theory “that moral values cannot be justified in any way, not by reason, by a God, by intuition, by conscience, or by the authority of the state, or law”. Moral values are: • Expressions of arbitrary and capricious behaviour. • Expressions of loose feelings and reasonless social conditioning: and • They are worthless, meaningless and irrational.
Metaphysical Nihilism is the theory that : • The universe is meaningless and without a purpose; • Human life and its activities are of no value or significance; • Nothing is worth existing for. Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Edu cational Instit utions … 211
Political Nihilism is the belief that social organization is so corrupt that its destruction is desirable. Sometimes coupled with a form of anarchism whereby no constructive alternative form of organization is deemed possible, terrorism, violent revolutionary activities and assassination are advocated. Do we not experience this in secret cult activities? The Greek philosopher Gorgias propounded an extreme form of scepticism sometimes referred to as nihilism, which denied the possibility of knowledge and doubted whether anything existed as nothing can be said to exist. The stronger nihilistic version is that, nothing exists.
If anything did not exist, we would not be able to know it, and if we were able to know it, we would not be able to communicate it. 2
Having used the word scepticism, it may be useful to clarify its origins as a; • State of doubting; • A state of suspension of judgement; • A state of belief or unbelief. Scepticism ranges from complete, total disbelief in everything, to a tentative doubt in a process of reaching certainty.
It is my firm conviction that aberrations persistent in our society and environment owe their origin to this form of Nihilism, which is the lack of standards, values, meaning and a philosophy of life that is positive in content. A wrong understanding of the universe, of the creator, of man shall lead to a failed action in the world. The consequence of course is clear-emptiness, nothingness. It is the origin of idleness, destruction and cultism. An idle mind, they say is the devil’s workshop.
Cultism in Educational Institutions Sr. Susan Oduah JMJ in her book “Catch them Young”, (1999, Markurdi, Onaivi Printing and Publishing Company) has literally and systematically dissected the phenomenon of cultism in educational institutions. In four chapters, she asks the questions and offers the answers to the topics: What is secret cultism? The dilemma of secret cultism; the devils disguise; spiritual implications; the devil; myth or reality; the
2 Peter Angeles Dictionary of Philosophy P. 259.
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clues/signs of a cultist; How to get out; and prevention of membership. 3
She notes in her preface that:
Secret cultism among the youth is indeed a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the moral fabric of our society. It has spread rapidly, feeding on the youthful exuberance of students on campuses to the touts in motor parks and has finally come to settle its ugly bulk at the very doorsteps of our homes . (Ibid, preface, p.v).
Several books and articles on this phenomenon exist. An in-depth study of these confraternities helps one discover their weaknesses, their sources of motivation, their false promises and emptiness, their need for salvation; their methods of operation and the trap set for unsuspecting youths, which has a potential to be used to set them free. Many cult members want to come out. They have discovered the futility of it all. They need help. There is a way out and there are helpers. All is not lost. This is their chance and they must make use of it. Nothing will happen to those who decide to come out. Fear is not an answer.
Doubt is not a way. An enlightenment campaign is the sure way to their real freedom. Even the Senate of Nigeria, the national assembly and the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo have joined in this anti-cult campaign. Recently, many cult members have renounced their memberships and are still in good shape. Many were lured or threatened into them. They need freedom, liberation from sin, from cultism, from fear, from death, from the devil. If African slaves in America have got freedom, Nigerian youths under domestic cultic influence need also this freedom. Let them have it. Let us help them. The time for the truth has come. This truth is based on standards. There is meaning in existence. It is a unique chance. Students, staff and other people are challenged to make use of this opportunity. A stitch in time saves nine. Opportunity sometimes comes but once. Nihilism is neither an option nor a way.
3 Sr. Susan Oduah JMJ, “Catch them Young”, 1999. Markurdi; Onaivi. Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Edu cational Instit utions … 213
Secret Cultism According to Sister Oduah Susan;
A secret cult is made up of regular youths who for one reason or another come together and take a blood vow, cutting the thumb and other acts, promising to “watch one another’s back”. As with any other organization, they have rules with which they carry out their activities and when failed to adhere to, punishment is meted out to the person. The large community feels that a person who becomes a member of a secret cult is stooping low but research has proven to the contrary because these persons actually think that they are achieving a level which is above that of other people. 4
It is a total brainwash scheme, accompanied by a show of comradeship which is of course false, which changes the ideologies of an individual, deceives them into perceived gains after becoming secret cult members, some of which include promises of: a. Job opportunity after school. b. Assurance of legal counsel in case of trouble. c. Exam leakage assistance. d. Connections to the top.
At any rate, the promises are empty. They cannot be fulfilled because they are based on falsehood. Hard work, not cultism is the road to success anywhere in the world.
Awakening from Nihilism With the benefit of hindsight, the 20 th Century, which produced great technological and communication successes for mankind, chased away various forms of diseases and made the universe a global village, yet the 20th Century failed to offer to a yearning humanity a deeper meaning of life and a deeper spiritual awareness on the truths that guide mankind. Having arrived at the moon, many people believed that they have overtaken God. A generation wrong about the mysteries of God would almost certainly be wrong about mankind. Materialism tended to replace spiritual wealth. No other century witnessed two grand style world wars costing humanity over one hundred million lives and as much as the same number in refugees and displaced people.
4 Loc.cit.
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The 20 th Century gave humanity novel weapons of mass destruction, including the atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, the napal bombs, various forms of ballistic missiles, biological and chemical weapons that made human life look cheap. As we open a new chapter in a new millennium, it is imperative to look into our past mistakes in the historical epoch just gone and make amends. The unexamined life, according to the sage Socrates, is not worth living. The world definitely must have drawn four painful lessons from the ashes of the 20 th Century, namely;
Fidelity to Truth Even under conditions of Nihilism, fidelity to truth is better than cowardice. If we remain faithful to the truth, inner liberty is obtained.
Dictatorship is Empty The boast by dictators that dictatorship is more vigorous than ‘decadent democracy’ was empty. Participatory democracy is better than one-man rule. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Doe, Abacha, Babangida and Buhari etcetera have been exposed. Dictatorships lead to concentration camps in manifold forms.
Economic Freedom The claim that socialism is morally superior to capitalism and better for the poor bas been proved empty and we have become witnesses. An open liberal market economy brings the best in human beings and their ingenuity more than a communist, rigid planned economic system, which creates slavery, poverty, stagnation and oppression
Neutrality is a Betrayal Vulgar relativism and its subjective culture undermines the culture of liberty and knowledge that it is preferable to take a position on an issue than to remain neutral.
Lessons Even for those unsure there is a God, a truth is different from a lie. Torturers can twist your mind, even reduce you to a vegetable, but as long as you retain the ability to say yes or no as truth alone commands, they cannot own you. The prison literature of our century abundantly testifies that the endless scroll of honour in our century went to those personalities who even tied on a stake insisted on their identity as free men and women, refusing to compromise truth for whatever they believed, and refusing to Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Edu cational Instit utions … 215 cheapen their positions by just signing to keep quiet or tell a lie before they are freed. By accepting torture in the face of its alternative, we have such great names today as Andrew Sakharov, Maximilian Kolbe, Vaclay Havel, Anthony Enahoro, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, and Julius Nyerere, to mention but a few.
Like Michael Novak has clearly demonstrated:
“To obey truth is to be free, and in certain extremities, nothing is more clear to the tormented mind, nothing more vital to the survival of self-respect, nothing so important to one’s sense of remaining a worthy human being, of being no one’s log, part of no one’s machine, and register to death against the kingdom of lies – nothing is so dear as to hold to truth”. In fidelity to truth lies human dignity. There is nothing recondite in this.
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn has this insight in 1970 upon receiving the Nobel prize in his address: that;
One single truth is more powerful than all other weapons in the world, communism advancing everywhere, truth would prevail against the lie; and that those who clung to truth would overturn tyranny.
He was correct. We are the witnesses today. We must learn today that we human beings do not own the truth. Truth is not ‘merely subjective’, not something we make up, or choose, or cut to today’s fashions or to tomorrow’s pragmatism. We obey the truth. We do not ‘have’ the truth. Trust owns us, truth possesses us. Truth is far larger and deeper than we are. Truth leads us where it will. It is not ours for mastering. Truth is the light of God with us. In obeying truth, a man becomes aware of participating in something greater than him, which measures his inadequacies and weaknesses.
Challenges on Freedom One point that many ardent souls of our time most passionately disseminate, for example, is vulgar relativism, what I call “Nihilism with a happy face”. For them, it is certain that there are no truths, only opinion, my opinion, your opinion. They abandon the defence of intellect. There being no purchase of intellect upon reality nothing else is left but preference, and will is everything. They retreat to romance of the will. Vulgar relativism is an invisible gas;
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odourless, deadly that is now polluting every free society on earth. It is a gas that attacks the central nervous system of moral striving. This most perilous threat to free society today is neither political nor economic. It is the poisonous, corrupting culture of relativism. The people know this while the intellectuals do not. If our intellectuals better knew this, they would be sounding the alarm.
Freedom cannot grow, it cannot even survive in every atmosphere. In the wearying journey of human history, free societies have been astonishingly rare. The ecology of liberty is more fragile than the biosphere of earth. Freedom needs clean and healthful habits of one human for another. Freedom needs entire rain forests of little acts of virtue, tangled loyalties, fierce lives, and undying commitments. Freedom needs particular institutions and these, in turn, need peoples of particular habits of the heart. There are two types of liberty: One is a pre-critical emotive, whimsical liberty, proper to children. The other critical, sober, deliberate, response and proper to adults. Liberty is not the freedom to do what you wish but it is freedom to do what you ought. Human beings are the only creatures on earth that do not blindly obey the laws of their nature, by instinct, but are free to choose to obey them with a loving will. Only humans enjoy the liberty to do what we ought to do or not to do it.
It is this second kind of liberty, critical, adult liberty that lies at the living core of the free society. It is the liberty of self-command, a tolerable mastery over one’s passions such s bigotry, ignorance, and self-deceit. It is the liberty of self-government in one’s own personal life. For how, James Madison once asked, can a people incapable of self-government in private life prove capable of it in public life? If they cannot practice self-government over their private passions, how will they practice it over the institutions of the Republic? Can there be a free society among citizens who habitually lie, who malign, who constantly cheat, who do not meet their responsibilities, who cannot be counted on, who bribe or corrupt and shirk difficulties, who flout the law, or who prefer to live as serfs or slaves, content in their dependency, so long as they are fed and entertained? Freedom requires the exercise of conscience; it requires the practice of those virtues that include courage, courtesy, ingenuity, and respect for individual choice, a patient regard for hearing evidence on both sides of the story.
The question for our millennium is whether we can survive the most insidious attack from within, from those who undermine the virtues of our people, doing in advance the work of “the father of lies”, the devil. If a people Cultism Versus Freedom and Learning in Edu cational Instit utions … 217 composed of 100 million citizens are guarded by 100 million self-governing consciences, otherwise called inner policemen, then the number of policemen on its streets may be few. For a society without inner policemen, on the contrary, there are not enough policemen in the world to make society civil. Can all the sufferings of our ancestors on behalf of liberty have been endured that we might be as we now are?
Conclusion What must we do? What we must do is self-control, self-government; self- command; openness to the future; openness to God. Nihilism builds no cities. Great cultures are built by vaulting aspiration by the Ethos of truth and love of justice and realism. We must learn again how to teach the virtues of our ancestors; the commandment of God, the teachings of Jesus Christ, which celebrate virtue, character and nobility of soul. It is a constant struggle to maintain a free and sane society on the political, cultural and economic levels. The cultural struggle will be the one that will take the stage most strongly in the new millennium. This is the challenge posed on all who are involved in the education of the youth in our country. It is a generous challenge and a fulfilling one at that. It gives joy to be called to join in this new rebirth of a new nation, a new people in a new time. It is my joy to invite you all to join the bandwagon as we begin this new journey.
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The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 219
Chapter Twenty One
The Social, Political and Economic Situation of Nigeria: A Critical Survey 1
1914—1960
In the year 1884 and 1885 some European greedy powers gathered at Berlin to take what belongs to others and to scramble for Africa. This led to the eventual partition of the continent to suit the new conquerors. The boundaries of the new territories were drawn on a table in Berlin, not on the fields of Africa.
Until this day, the entire Continent still suffers from the injustice and error which this blunder has caused a continent described as the "cradle of civilization" and the origin of the scientific man". Britain participated and thus got the large geographical territory of over 250 ethnic tribes, nations and languages under British authority. The conquest was not by invitation. It was obtained by force and by treachery. The same would be said for any colony since the 15th Century. Nigeria came into existence in 1914. Between 1914 and 1960 the British ruled our country and dictated the policies and programmes of governance. For their own interests, the British Colonialists brought electricity, introduced Pipe—borne water, constructed tarred roads, built rail lines, and encouraged agriculture for the production of cash crops and raw materials to service their own industrial development. To facilitate the creation of a dependent economy, they operated minimally participatory economic activities which enabled a few of our people to build shelters for themselves, to educate their children, etc. However, they denied us political freedom until October 1, 1960 - thirty four years ago, when the struggle of our forefathers for self-governance succeeded.
1960— 1966 As soon as the British left and we took our political, economic and social destiny into our own hands, we started to openly misgovern ourselves.
1 Ike O.F.; Paper presented at the Thalia-Theatre, Hamburge on the 13 th of May 1996 during the conference, Hamburger Stittung Fur Politische Verfolgte ev
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Those who took over from the Colonialists showed no interest in transforming the lives of the people for the better nor cared about extricating the masses from the throes of agonizing poverty caused by the exploitative tendencies of the colonial economic system. They merely inherited the corrupting and stupefying privileges of the Colonialists and consolidated the exploitative economic system. Political office holders who previously had no productive means of accumulating wealth, opportunistically used their position to enrich themselves. Consequently, the ship of state started to flounder. Avoidable political crises enveloped the nation. Government and opposition who were at daggers-drawn battle for political power. The press was muzzled. Peace was sacrificed. Instability lacerated the polity. Corruption became en vogue in virtually all the corridors of power, in the centre and in the regions. Confidence of the people in Government started to wane. Then in January, 1966 the Armed Forces of Nigeria abolished democracy and took over the reins of Government.
1966—1994 This period covers over 28 years. Apart from the short spell of democracy between 1979 and 1983. the military has ruled for most of the period. The legacy of both the military and civilian administrations is a legion of looting of the Nation's resources and shameless flaunting of the loot by leaders, their cohorts and stooges; the animated decimation of our social life; the organized destruction of our economy; the brutal repression of our fundamental rights; the castration of our democratic institutions; the dehumanization of our national psyche; the planned and systematic devastation of our National infrastructures of all categories; the corrosive pollution of our moral life; the ungodly contamination of our national values; the imposition of pervasive, grinding, heinous and aching poverty on the masses of our people. These constitute the political and socio-economic disorder of today.
THE ECONOMY
Under the Abacha regime the economy was in total shambles. The industrial capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector has plummeted to 32.33 percent in 1993 from 70.1 percent in 1980. The cost of fund i.e the bank lending rate is unofficially between 60 and 75 percent depending on the bank, although it is officially fixed at 21 percent. This should be compared with the lending rates in the United Kingdom, 5.75 percent as at Monday 12, September, 1994; United States of America 6 percent in January, 1994; Canada, 6.75 percent in April, 1994; Germany,8 per cent and Italy 11.60 The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 221 percent in February, 1994. In Nigeria under democracy in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 before Gen. Sani Abacha terminated all democratic structures on the 31 December, 1993 the lending rated were 7.7 percent, 9 percent, 9.3 percent and 10.1 percent respectively.
Foreign exchange is scarce and official allocation is 3 percent of the demand. The parallel market i.e the black market, which is now the unofficial source of foreign exchange is spasmodically running at N85.00 to $1(US) and as high as N113.00 to £1 as at 17th September, 1994; Whereas in 1983 before Abacha Struck, all you needed to purchase £1 Sterling was Nl.35k (One Naira and Thirty-five kobo) and $1 (US) (One Dollar) exchanged for 70k (Seventy kobo). Inflation is now running at 200 per cent fortnightly. The unit of our currency which is the Naira is inferior to toilet roll which costs a minimum of N15 each. Foreigners are disinvesting and there is supersonic flight of capital from our economy. Mass unemployment is ravaging the country. The pertinent and logical questions become what did the Civilian Regime do with the $77.4 billion (Seventy-Seven Billion and Four Hundred Million Dollars) realized from the sale of the nation's crude oil production by the democratic regime between 1980 and 1983 before Abacha dismantled democratic machinery and re-introduced military dictatorship on the 3lst of December, 1983 when he announced the coming to power of Buhari’s Regime. What has become of the enormous sum of $121.9 billion (One Hundred and Twenty-One Billion and Nine Hundred Million Dollars) earned by Nigeria from sales of crude oil production under the military dictatorship of Generals Buhari, Babangida and Abacha from 1984 to 1993?
Today, Nigeria produces 1.9 million barrels of oil every day. We should earn not less than $25 million per day. The Naira equivalent at the current parallel market is N2.5 billion per day and N912 billion per annum. But much on our National income does not reach the people. It is looted, plundered by leaders in the corridors of power. Even the loot is not kept in the country. It is kept in bank vaults in Switzerland, in Britain, in Germany, in U.S.A., in France, in Italy and other Western Democracies promoting the economic growth and development of those countries at the expense of the Nigerian economy. Poverty has dismally engulfed the nation. The masses are dehumanized. Life is a short, nasty, brutish and agonizing burden. Millions of our people are walking corpses. Even pensioners who gave the best of their lives to the nation, are living in penury; their pensions are several months in arrears.
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The economic climate of Nigeria generates gloom, despair, disaffection, dissatisfaction and disenchantment. The economy has literally collapsed. And when the impoverished masses ask why they are poor in the midst of abundant national wealth and resources, the looters respond with repressive-despotism and state terrorism.
EDUCATION
The educational system of the country hardly exists. When the schools, colleges and universities are not closed as a result of multifarious strikes, teachers and lecturers are paid several months in arrears and schools', colleges' and universities' buildings are dilapidating and collapsing and even the few that are still standing have leaking roofs. School facilities are unavailable and research belongs to the past. Funds meant for the educational sector are diverted to the provision of ultramodern security gadgets for the protection of military leaders.
Consequently, poor parents are compelled to either pay heavy tuition and other fees or withdraw their children from schools, colleges and universities. Education is not free. Education is not even affordable. Education is out of the reach of the masses. In other to finance their education, many deprived youths have taken to crimes, prostitution and other soul brutalising fraudulent practices.
The net effect is moral pollution and intellectual degradation. In addition to all these, the military junta has laid a heinous siege on learning and research. Academic autonomy and democracy, cherished and age-old values have fallen victims to jack—boots of military repression and as a result, intellectuals and researchers have either taken to flight, constituting a disturbing phenomenon called ‘Brain-Drain’, or hounded and repressed.
SHELTER
Homelessness is rampant as shelter is scarce and the rents of the few housing units that are available are astronomically and exorbitantly out of reach of the vast majority of the masses. Building materials are no longer within the reach of the working people, a bag of cement now costs between N250.00 and N300.00 and to build a bungalow of two bed-rooms now costs a minimum of half a million Naira. A young graduate in Nigerian civil service today earns less than N2,000.00 a month, that is, less than N24,000.00 per annum. So, even if he saves all his earnings, it will still take him a gruesome 20 The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 223 years to own a modest 2 bedroom bungalow. Considering that less than 10percent of civil servants are graduates. It is statistically impossible for an average Nigerian worker to own a modest 2 bed room bungalow in a life time.
FOOD Food-whether nutritious or otherwise—has become alien to many Nigerians. Millions of families are now forced to make a choice between having breakfast and foregoing lunch and dinner or taking lunch and dispensing with breakfast and dinner or arranging to take dinner and forget breakfast and lunch. No bread winner of the family asks his children if they have eaten to satisfaction any longer. Today, few families in the uppermost socio-economic spectrum can satisfy the food needs of their children. Nigerians no longer search the dustbin because there is nothing to find any longer in the dustbin.
The dustbin nowadays contains no food remnants or left-over because there is nothing to leave over any longer. Our condition in the country is economically critical and yet the country is opulent, its leaders are criminally opulent.
HEALTH Health services and facilities in Nigeria are in precarious, deplorable and unproductive state. Health care delivery is unsatisfactory and grossly inadequate and very poor throughout the country. Few hospitals, clinics and dispensaries exist in rural areas. In most of them, there are no drugs. There are no diagnosing equipments. There are few qualified personnel to treat the sick and the diseased as many qualified medical doctors and para-medics are now in self exile in Europe, America and Middle East countries as a result of choking political repression and acute social and economic disorder.
Modern medical cure has yielded place to native and religious cure. The cost of medical services is so astronomical that most Nigerians are now comfortable with debilitating, psychological, mental and physical illness. Everyday we are confronted with the gory sights of the terminally sick and the severely wounded, abandoned helplessly under bridges and in street corners. Curative and preventive medication which is a fundamental right of citizens is no longer available to millions of ordinary Nigerians.
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TRANSPORTATION
All forms of transportation -rail, road, are no longer pliable. They are full of pot-holes. Even roads built by colonial authorities have so deteriorated that they are now life- hazards to road users. An absent-minded, insensitive and uncompassionate leadership instead of improving and maintaining these roads have allowed them to deteriorate. Rail transportation is no better. Almost all the rail roads built by colonial authorities are no longer functioning. Where the rail roads are still being used. It is the same old, stone-age and obsolete trains that run on them. This is a shameful reality in an age of ultra-modem underground rail transportation system. Our coastal communities are cut-off from physical contact with themselves and other land-locked communities because government would not provide safe and efficient water transportation. Air transportation is not only inordinately expensive; it is also risky and distressing. The very rich who can afford exorbitant air fares are in great pains travelling by air because our air buses are in state of disrepair and air services are notoriously erratic. No well tarred and routine maintained roads. No safe and affordable air transportation. No efficient and safe water transportation system. No ultra—modern and functional rail services. What is the meaning of all these? Total and paralyzing under-development. Complete functional immobility. Absolute lack of effective contact.
PORTABLE WATER It is lamentable and pitiable that clean and affordable drinking water is unavailable to 80 percent of our people, thirty-six years after independence and in an oil rich nation. In the rural and semi-urban communities of our country, millions of our people daily troop to infested, unhygienic and stagnant ponds and rivers for their drinking water. In spite of the willingness and material support of international agencies, several Governments have not been able to provide pipe-borne water to these communities. Preventable deadly diseases now scourge our rural dwellers and despite the assistance of some humanitarian organisations, they are still trapped in the throes of an explosive epidemic. In the cities where there are few water taps, water has since ceased running out of them and everywhere people are resorting to bizarre practices to get drinking water.
ELECTRICITY POWER GENERATION
The power of electricity is a major means of serious industrial growth and business, social, and domestic upliftment. But sadly, electricity is not available The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 225 to most of our people and where it is erratically available to a tiny minority, it is devastatingly costly. Our people now live in utter darkness.
The nation is blessed with fuel to generate electric power, the nation has dams and natural water-falls to run the turbines but stable and regular supply of electricity proves impossible.
Why? Why are we so blessed; yet so distressed?
RECREATIONAL FACILITIES
The people are entitled to the provision of recreational facilities for the development of their intellectual and psychological faculties. They need recreational facilities to become well developed and adjusted members of the society. In Nigeria today, there are no well-maintained play grounds, no adequate cinematographic facilities and audio—visual information technologies for the cultural development of our youths. It is criminally negligent that in this computer age, an uncaring and benighted government has left the future leaders of this country (i.e. the youth) in the quagmire of psychological and mental under-nourishment.
THE POLITICAL SITUATION
The Political future of Nigeria is uncertain. The political horizon is muddled and the political landscape is foggy and fuzzy. Nine years ago we started on a political transition to nowhere. Babangida was the helmsman and Abacha his pointsman. N50 billion of the tax payers money was expended on a transition journey without destination. We ended up in the most heinous and stone-aged annulment, that has plunged Nigeria disastrously into chaotic instability and pervasive tension which has been shaking this country precariously to the very root and foundation of its existence. Now Abacha has come to duplicate or replicate the same obscene game of bogus and phoney transition that is now predicated on perfidious deception. In his maiden broadcast of Thursday, the 18th of November, 1993 Abacha told the world that he would convoke a constitutional conference with ‘full constituent powers’.
But today the lie in him has been exposed by his own laws. He set up a constitutional conference whose election was boycotted by a large chunk of the Nigerian society. He personally chose 96 out of 369 members of the Constitutional Conference. The 96 members chosen by him represent his
226 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance cronies, his friends, his stooges, his business compradors and cohorts, including those he drove out of power as being incompetent, inept and corrupt on the 3lst of December, 1983. He then promulgated the Constitutional Conference Decree No.3 of 1994 and provided in Section 12 of that Decree that the Quorum is one-third of the members, i.e 123 out of 369 members including the 96 members whom he himself individually selected without being elected. He went further to provide in the law that majority of the 123 could decide the political future of this country on any issue whatsoever i.e only 62 members out of 369, less than 20 per cent of the membership of the Conference. The whole concept of the Constitutional Conference is a smoke screen, a Charade, a facade and a masquerade to hide the hidden agenda of an unrepentant dictator.
STATE TERRORISM
Today in Nigeria, we have nothing but organised state terrorism. An unscrupulously truculent and insensately wild government is now running across the country, brutalising all voices of dissent and leaving in its trail, pools of blood. On Friday, the 26th of August, 1994 at 3.30 am, four armed men in military outfit invaded the law chambers of Chief Gani Fawehnmi, shot at the Chambers' guards and critically wounded two of them, leaving them in a pool of blood thinking them for dead with the following message: we will kill you," we will kill your boss because he is opponent of this government“. On the same day and around the same time the state organized terrorists invaded the house of Dan Suleiman in Lagos, poured petrol around it, smashed his car, poured petrol into it and set it on fire. Only God saved Dan Suleiman and his family from being roasted alive. Dan Suleiman is a pro- democracy leader. He is a retired air commodore. He was a former Minister, Member of Supreme Military Council (SMC), and a former Governor of Plateau State. He is from the middle belt area of the country.
The prisons are full of pro—democracy activists, Political leaders and trade union leaders. Elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Cornelius Adebayo (the former governor of Kwara State), Prince Adeniji-Adele, (the former Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government), Chief Frank Kokori, (the General Secretary of Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers,-NUPENG), Mr. Fred Eno, (the Personal Aide to Chief Abiola) and hundreds of other pro-democracy activists are now detained in various prisons without trial.
The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 227
Other leaders arrested included Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former Governor of Kaduna State; Col Abubakar Umar (RTD), also a former Governor of Kaduna State; Gen. Alani Akinrinade (th), a former Chief of Defence Staff; Alhaji Muhammed Arzika; Professor lshaya Audu, Second Republic External Affairs Minister; Mr. James Bawa Magaji, former Kaduna State Deputy Governor; Dr. Mohammed Modibbo; Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman; Mr Iorhem Ortese, former General Manager of BCC Football Club; Alhaji Aliru Abubakar; Alhaji Alhazzan Abba; Dr Edward Gamba; Alhaji Lawan Dambazzau; Alhaji Ala Wali; Alhaji Sani Abdulahi; Chief Arthur Nwankwo, a prominent leader of Eastern Mandate Union (EMU); Mr Kassim O. Balogun and Mr. Fagade Abayomi Secretary- General and Assistant Secretary-General of National Association of Nigerian Students respectively, and Assistant Secretary Nigerian Students (NANS).
It is ironic that in March, 1953 when Chief Enahoro moved the motion for the independence of Nigeria, the leader of the junta, General Sani Abacha was 10years of age and his Deputy, General Oladipo Diya was 9 years old.
Above all, the winner of the freest and the fairest election in Nigeria since the amalgamation of the country in 1914 is now languishing in the most inclement detention condition and his health hanging precariously between life and death. Chief M.K.O Abiola, the winner of June 12 presidential election is close to death. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has confirmed this.
On Wednesday 7th of September, 1994, the Abacha government rolled out 8 Decrees to terrorize, to intimidate and to crack down on voices of dissent and opposition to his atrocious regime.
Decrees are:
1. The Constitution (Suspension and Modification) (Amendment) Decree No.5 of 1994;
2. The Concord Newspapers and African Concord Weekly Magazine (Prescription and Prohibition from Circulation) Decree No. 6 of 1994;
3. The Punch Newspapers (Prescription and Prohibition from Circulation) Decree No. 7 of 1994;
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4. The Guardian Newspapers and African Guardian Weekly Magazine (Proscription and Prohibition from Circulation) Decree No. 8 of 1994;
5. Nigerian Labour Congress ( Dissolution of National Executive Council) Decree no. 9 of 1994;
6. NUPENG & PENGASSAN (Dissolution of Executive Councils) Degree No. 10 of 1994;
7. State Security (Detention of Persons) (Amendment) Decree No. 11 of 1994;
8. Federal Military Government (Supremacy and Enforcement of powers) degree No. 12 of 1994.
Decree No. 5 of 1994 is meant to affect Chief M.K.O Abiola's case by giving the Federal High Court the jurisdiction it did not have or possess at the time Abiola was charged
Decree No- 6 of 1 994 proscribed and prohibited from circulation the following newspapers and magazine:
1. The Weekly African Concord Magazine;
2. The National Concord Daily Newspaper;
3. The Weekend Concord Weekly Newspaper;
4. The Sunday Concord Weekly Newspaper;
5. Community Concord Newspapers in all States of the Federation and Abuja; and
6. Any other Newspaper or Magazine in any form under whatever name printed and published by the Concord Press Nigeria Limited or African Concord Limited or any of their subsidiaries.
Decree No. 7 of 1994 proscribed and prohibited from circulation the following newspapers:
1. The Punch; The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 229
2. The Sunday Punch; 1. Any other paper by whatever name called, printed and published by Punch Nigeria Limited or any of its subsidiaries.
Decree No. 8 of 1994 proscribed and prohibited from circulation the following newspapers and magazine:
2. The Guardian; 3. The Guardian on Sunday; 4. The African Guardian Weekly Magazine; 5. The Guardian Express; 6. The Financial Guardian;
7. The Lagos Life;
8. Any other Newspaper or Magazine in any form under whatever name called, printed and published by the Guardian Newspapers Limited and Guardian Magazines Limited or by any of their subsidiaries.
Decree No. 9 of 1994 dissolved the following bodies of the Nigerian Labour Congress:
1. The National Executive Council of the Nigerian Labour Congress. 2. The Central Working Committee of the Nigerian Labour Congress.
3. Any other national body or committee by whatever name called in the congress.
Decree No. 10 of 1994 dissolved the following bodies of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Association of Senior Staff of Nigeria (PENGASSAN):-
1. The National Executive Council of NUPENG; 2. The National Executive Council of PENGASSAN; 3. The State Executive Council of NUPENG in all the states of the Federation and Abuja; 4. The State Executive Council of PENGASSAN in all the states of the Federation and Abuja;
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5. Any other national or state body by whatever name called in NUPENG or PENGASSAN.
In Decrees No. 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10, the authority of the Courts to query or question anything done by the Federal Military Government in those respects has been removed.
Decree No. 11 of 1994 strengthens the detention without trial of any Nigerian and authorizes the Chief of General Staff (CGS) or Inspector- General of Police (1GP) to detain any Nigerian without trial for at least 3 months in the first instance.
Unlike detention without trial under the Babangida Regime which allowed for a review of any detention after 6 weeks, Abacha decree No. 11 only allowed for a review after three months. So in essence, decree No. 11 amends the state security (detention of persons), Decree No. 2, 1984 so as to empower the Inspector General of Police in addition to the Chief of General Staff to exercise power of detention under the Decree and to increase the period of the detention from 6 weeks to 3 months.
The most fundamental and clearly devastating of all the eight Decrees rolled out by the Abacha Junta is Decree No. 12 of 1994 in which Abacha sought to abrogate the whole pre—existing legal order in Nigeria before 17th November, 1993 and, according to the first preamble of the Decree, Abacha now says that what happened on the 17th November, 1993 was a ‘military revolution’.
Under Decree No.12 the Fundamental Rights of all Nigerians have been suspended, in fact, removed or rendered inoperative throughout the existence of the Abacha Regime.
In short Decree No. 12 is a subtle declaration of a State of emergency or a hybrid declaration of Martial Law in Nigeria. In Decree No. 12, Abacha proclaimed his regime as totally in tune with the Rule of Law and its due process. This is an introduction of unrestrained dictatorship without checks or good restraint.
The implication of these Decrees cannot be far-fetched. It is to create a climate of intimidation predicated on repressive Abacha to stifle voices of dissent against his hidden agenda to stay permanently in office. How else can one really interpret these Decrees? If the intention of the Federal Military The Social, Political and Economic Situati on o f Nigeria 231
Government is to transit to democracy, then the government does not need a plethora of undemocratic and draconian laws to achieve that objective. In essence, you don't prepare people for democracy through an undemocratic process and environment. In the interim, decree No. 8 has been de- proscribed; but it can be reapplied anytime.
THE WAY FORWARD Surely, we cannot go on like this. We cannot continue this perilous slide to political doom, economic destruction, social annihilation and cultural disruption. The rot has to stop. The cycle of seemingly unending national pains and pangs has to change. A change is imperative. It is the only way a leadership changes. A change of system; a change of ideas, a change of policies, a change of programmes, a change of directions, change of perceptions and perspectives. How do we realize this change? This is the task facing each and every one of us in Nigeria. I shall play my part.
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The Business of Business is Ethics 233
Chapter Twenty Two
The Business of Business is Ethics 1
THE CONTEXT OF CRISIS
My reflections at this distinguished lecture lead me to assert that the global environment in which we live today is characterized by crisis, the dimensions of which are heavily traceable to the lack of professional and business ethics in dealing with others beyond ourselves. This is so because of the strong sense of egoistic tendencies of humans at all levels which has reached the crossroads.
There is development in regression; lack of meaning and apparent lack of values. The collapse of banks, businesses and governments, recently with the 2008 – 2014 bankruptcy of Euros, Lehman brothers and even Nigerian banks point to the dimensions of this lack of ethical orientations in business. In many cases, lives have been lost, and individual families, businesses and livelihoods have been ruined.
Reading the preface of the book titled “ Global Corruption ” recently authored by Lawrence Cockcroft and published by BestRed in South Africa (2014), these words find compelling space in our minds and thoughts as a point of departure as we reflect over the topic assigned:
“Over the course of 2012, there was significant movement in the struggle against corruption at both the national and international level…
First, the fallout of the Western banking crisis has shifted public opinion towards a view that bankers were not just guilty of reckless risk-taking, but were also responsible for fraud, tax evasion, and interest-rate manipulation and mis-selling. During 2012 a dozen prestigious international banks paid a total of US$21 billion in fines for these offences.
Second, revelations from China about the family fortunes of both Bo Xilai, party
1 Ike O.F.; 2014 distinguished lecture of the ESUT Business School, Enugu delivered on the 12 th of April, 2014.
234 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance chief of Chongqing, and former premier Wen Jiabao marked the indisputable fact that corruption at the highest level of the Chinese Communist Party is a reality - and is widely recognised by millions on China's Weibo website.
Third, the hopes raised by the Arab Spring that corruption would finally be confronted were seriously eroded as the significant influence of the army in Egypt - with its massive corporate interests - was sustained.
Fourth, tentative moves to combat corruption in Russia made by former president Medvedev appear to have been reversed in President Putin's new term, with legislation sidelining human-rights and anti-corruption NGOs as foreign agents being adopted by Parliament.
Finally, the collapse of Mali, involving a failed government and a subsequent conflict between jihadist and separatist groups, was partly attributable to the struggle for control of the trans-Saharan drugs trade, now a key conduit for cocaine originating in Latin America and destined for Europe”.
THE CHALLENGE OF TRUTH
I desire to reflect in this context on a matter, which bears great relevance to the topic under discussion. It has to do with the confusion of the present times and the lack of certainty, call it perhaps the lack of a definite and sure orientation to guide people's lives and societal destiny. There were times, in those days, when people were sure of their beliefs and the customs of their fatherland, Today it is fashionable to question everything including oneself. People these days postulate the position that: the old certainties are gone. Virtue is gone. Truth is gone. Shame is gone. Integrity and credibility are gone.
The traditional answers seem redundant. Thorny questions occur with ever increasing frequency. Today, the vocabulary of right and wrong, of duty, and the neglect of duty, of sin or of shame has become difficult to use. Our age is confronted by decisions, which previous generations did not have to face. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many people have rejected the traditional sources of ethical illumination. Yet a further source of complication is the new global and pluralistic environment. We live in a meeting point and global village environment, people say. Culture is a thing of the past, they believe. John Scally in his editorial to the book: "Ethics in Crisis", Veritas, 1997, Dublin p. 9 has demonstrated that: The Business of Business is Ethics 235
"Although pluralism is not new, the scale of it in contemporary society is marked by an almost bewildering proliferation of opinions, believes and world views. This pluralistic ambience is potentially of great value to ethics, bringing a more vigorous intellectual confrontation with basic ethical problems and a more open and public debate about ethical questions ".
In the light of the moral diversity, and the proliferation of moral languages issuing from our plural and global world, what must remain central to humanity after the fact of relativity is acknowledged? Nothing? Something? What? Several questions emerge: Could legislation cover these ambiguities in life? Are any ethical principles universally applicable? What are they? How do we cope with the contending characteristics of our age, its evident cultural pluralism, its rapid social change, its linguistic distrust of authoritarian and centralistic claims?
"There is no such thing as truth ", they teach even the little ones."Truth is bondage ". Believe what seems right to you. There are as many truths as there are individuals. Follow your feelings. Do as you please. Get in touch with yourself. Do what feels comfortable
This is the language of the times and they speak thus who prepare the jails for the young. For, those who undermine the truth perform the work of tyrants.
These are the challenges young students face as they leave home for the first time and enter tertiary institutions. Some lose all they got from their parents in one week or semester. They imbibe the new slogans, loose their roots and end up as the bird called "bat", neither here nor there. Some join bad company and lose direction.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF NIHILISM: Permit me to offer a modest rational explanation about the confusion and the crisis in which our society finds itself. It is an excursion into philosophy. Philosophy itself is the love of wisdom and the search for meaning in life. As "Philos" (love) it has continued as an art and as "Sophia (wisdom) it has remained a science, to provide the intellectual and rational "humus soil" upon which theories and actions are founded.
The problems of the present, the cultism existent in university premises and institutions of learning need rational explanation and receive such in what philosophers call Nihilism (from the Latin meaning ~ nothingness). The word
236 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance nihilism comes from the Latin, which literally means "nothingness". According to Peter A. Angeles in the dictionary of philosophy, nihilism in epistemology is: "The denial of any objective and real ground or state of truth; The theory that nothing is knowable. All knowledge is illusory, worthless, meaningless, relative and insignificant. No knowledge is possible. Nothing can be known ".
Friedrich Nietzsche the German philosopher of the 18th century spent much of his time on this idea. It is only through Nihilism - the strange denial of truth and the faked belief in nothing positive or good - that we can explain the failed leadership of the Nigeria state after forty years of survivalist Machiavellianism of political experimentation.
Nihilism helps us also to explain the lack of intellectual vigour in high institutions which push students, rational beings to a cultic condescension of drinking human blood, planning evil, and lashing out harm on people instead of healing society by a productive salvific ingenuity. And what do they gain by the sadistic infliction of pain? Nothing. This nihilism manifests itself in other untruths, which has led the Nigerian state to failed orientation of values evident in the socio-psychological cultural and historical realities of the country. Failed utilization of resources and personnel as well as the cult of mediocrity and meanness. Tribalism, ethnicism and religious syncretisms and bigotry. The corruption of the entire system with bribery, inducement and mistrust, civil service, the aimed forces, business and industry, educational social and cultural institutions, civil and state.
The question of "having more" instead of "becoming more" and being and having, essence and existence," (J. P Satre) is noticeable in random acquisition of property (having) even where the acquirer remains dwarf in his/her personal, spiritual and intellectual development. But one is rich in material acquisition of titles, honour, and land. How fulfilled?
The "anything goes" philosophy of life lacking in any principles, standards or values, apparent lack of patriotism and coherent consistent principles of life. Financial misdirection, false investments, misappropriation, materialism and in fact inferiority complex. These and many more are the banes of our society. How else could one explain a life-style that cannot stand the test of truth, of value, of liberty and the future, except to resort to nihilism as a philosophical hermeneutic, an interpretation of a paradigmatic phenomenon of cultism and its attendant scenario.
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The psychological and philosophical states in which there is a loss of all ethical, religious, political, social values. The skeptical denial of all that is regarded as real or unreal, knowledge or error, being or non-being. illusory or non-illusory; the denial of the value of all distinctions. Nihilism in ethics refers to the theory "that moral values cannot be justified in any way not by reason, by God, by intuition, by consciences, or by the authority of the state, or law".
Moral values are: Expressions of arbitrary and capricious behaviour Expressions of loose feelings and reasonless social conditioning: and they are worthless, meaningless and irrational.
Context and Definitions: In discussing the overall topic of BUSINESS ETHICS, certain epistemological clarities, definitions and positive statements need re-stating. These include answers to the questions: what is ethics? why study Ethics in Business? What distinguishes Ethics from moral beliefs? How are actions, social practices, institutions and systems analyzed from an ethical point of view? Does business have a social responsibility? How do we determine what is ethical in business ? Responding in detail to the above questions need time and space. To begin with the word Ethics as defined by the Merriam Webster’s collegiate Dictionary contains some meanings which include:
‹ “The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. ‹ A set of moral principles or values ‹ The principles of conduct governing an individual or a group”.
Ethics in all these definitions is concerned with right and wrong behavior. Questions to ask in ethical theory to justify human actions are
∑ Is the action good for me? ∑ Is the action good or harmful for society? ∑ Is the action fair or just? ∑ Does the action violate any ones rights? ∑ Have I made a commitment implied or explicit?
These questions find relevance in the “whys” of Business! They have roots in Aristotelian philosophy which set the foundation for ethical enquiry on the “common good” His book on Nichomechean Ethics and the purpose of any
238 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance action, namely teleology set the questions right What is the purpose of it all? And what is Happiness? Available research show that the practice of Business Ethics is not current but has roots in antiquity and have roots in religious history – Buddhist, Hindu, Christian. Muslim and Traditional African Wisdoms.
BUSINESS AS A CALLING: Actually, my topic is to consider business and ethics generally and to locate this thought within the Nigerian environment. A business corporation is not a Church, it is not a State, not a Welfare Agency, not (except rarely) a Religious Association; not a Political Association. Thus it is of considerable importance to discern, first of all, the moral ideals inherent in business as business.
The business corporation is in its essence a moral institution. It imposes some moral obligations that are inherent in its own ends, structure and modes of operation. Other moral obligations fall upon it through the moral and religious commitments of its members. Thus, those who labour within the business corporation have many moral responsibilities and a richly various moral agenda, of which the fourteen responsibilities in this paper are basic but not exclusive.
Those who do not allow that business as a moral institution injure themselves twice over. First, they fall prey to a common aristocratic prejudice. Second, since a healthy market economy is a necessary condition for the success of democracy, they diminish the prospects of the free society. In sum, business has many responsibilities to the moral ecology of our nation, and especially to the culture of virtue. It has been wrong, devastatingly wrong, for advertisers in the name of business to promote assaults on traditional values and virtues.
To lie in the name of business is to injure business, for good business needs a certain culture of honesty. These are the muscles, ligaments, and sinews of the free society. Cut them and you have paralyzed liberty. The most important responsibility of the women or man of business, however, is highly personal. For according to Jesus in the Bible:
What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul "? (Mark 8: 36). In other words, one must raise the first concern of ethical reflection, which is: how one's actions affect one's soul! "Business is an The Business of Business is Ethics 239 economic activity, which, simply by being what it is, serves the common good of the community in several ways ". (Novak, P. 139).
Permit me to quote from Pope John Paul II Encyclical letter Centesimus Annus (1991) where he says:
"The purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavoring to satisfy their basic needs and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society. Profit is a regulator of the life of a business, but it is not the only one. Other human and moral factors must also be considered, which in the long term are at least equally important for the life of business ". In the words of Michael Novak in his new book: "Business is a Calling ", he expresses the view that:
"The business corporation is a fascinating institution. It is a social institution but independent of the State. Its legal existence is transgenerational. It goes on even when the progenitor dies, and it may endure across many generations" (p. 135).
The business Corporation is also a mediating structure, that is, a social institution larger than the individuals who make it up, but smaller than the state. An institution "both voluntary and private, it stands between the individual and the State and is, perhaps (after the family), the crucial institution of civil society" (p. l36).
The private business corporation is a necessary but not sufEcient condition for the success of democracy. A question arising therefore from the above posits: Is there and should there be any ethics in business? The answer is a capital YES. There must be ethics in business even to serve the survival of business as a business and the survival of society itself How could there be business without a guiding moral thread, a code of conduct aud one might say, an ethics of the profession?
What Business Must Do From Within: The art of enterprise called business is a morally serious calling. It needs men and women of virtue to fulfil it. This is why looking into the topic of business and ethics, a set of criteria is developed, they are virtues of Ethics in Business, called by Novak as "corporate responsibilities" (p. l39ft), which constitute a primary moral duty. They must be met for any business to succeed, not just quantitatively, but also qualitatively. They are crucial to the
240 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance health of the State and, more importantly, to the health of civil society, which is the master social reality.
Seven internal responsibilities: 1. To satisfy customers with goods and services of real value. 2. To make a reasonable return on the funds entrusted to the business corporation by its investors. 3. To create new wealth. 4. To create new jobs. 5. To defeat envy through generating upward mobility and putting empirical ground under the conviction that hard work and talent are fairly rewarded. 6. To promote invention, ingenuity and in general "progress in the arts and useful sciences". 7. To diversify the interests of the republic.
What Society Must Do To Business From Without : But there are also seven other responsibilities from outside business which form the basis of an ethics of business necessary for success within the new dawn of Nigeria. They must be given a chance for the nation to rise again. They include in the tabulation of Novak, (pp. 146ft) the following: To establish within the firm a sense of Community and respect for the dignity of persons, thus shaping within the firm a culture that fosters the three cardinal virtues of business: namely;
• Fostering respect for the standards, discipline, motivation and teamwork that brings out the best in people. • Encouraging their moral and intellectual growth. • Helping people gain a sense of high achievement and personal fulfilment.
To protect the political soil of liberty: Since the survival of business depends on the survival of free institutions, the responsibilities of people in business include the need to build majorities well informed about the principles of a free society. Business is plants that do not grow just on any soil; they depend on specific sort of political environments. People in business therefore have a responsibility to be watchful over their political society, even as a matter of survival. Those involved in business must come to see how fragile their activities are, for they can be crushed by war, revolution, tyranny and The Business of Business is Ethics 241 anarchy. Businesses should encourage their employees, retirees, and shareholders to take political ideas and policy issues seriously, to participate in electoral campaigns, and to vote.
To exemplify respect for law : Business cannot survive without the rule of law. Long-term contracts depend for their fulfilment on respect for law. It is doubly scandalous for people in business to break the law for they depend on the law for their survival. It is wrong in itself, and it is also suicidal, since to the extent that the law falls into disrespect, the life of corporations is rendered insecure, if not impossible. Companies that cut comers, or waffle morally, shame their profession.
Social Justice : This is a virtue that is highly important to business. The essence of social justice is to look with the eyes of justice (give to each his/her due) at the present condition of society; to reflect with others about what needs to be done to improve things; and to act with others in practical effective ways to move towards that goal.
To communicate often and fully with other investors, shareholders, pensioners, customers and employees.
To contribute to making its own habitat, the surrounding society, a better place: It is much to the advantage of the business firm that democracy succeeds. An active private sector is a good alternative to a dictatorial State. The business firm has a strong responsibility to become a leader in civil society. It has therefore to contribute to other stakeholders in the areas of education, the promotion of arts, the youth, environment; care for the elderly, the homeless and the poor. By this, the business nurtures the networks of the civil society and strengthens those of its allies who provide an alternative to government.
To protect the moral ecology of freedom through advertisements, some businesses think they make more money. If such advert undermines virtue and the cultures upon which the free society rests, the business suffers in the long run. Corporate Executives have grave responsibilities to supervise their advertising departments far more rigorously than they now do, discerning whether their product weakens in the public mind the virtues on which the free society depends.
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GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN SOCIETY - RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY 1. Business exists to be sustainable It is normal for Businesses to understand their fundamental role in society as working to help create wealth (prosperity) by making profitable investments in the short and long terms. This aim is not enough. It is suggested that Sustainable Wealth generation be made an aim by placing the human being at the centre. "Man is the author, the centre and the end of all social and economic life", to quote the documents of the Catholic Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 1965, No 2. This is enhanced by an understanding of development as integral, not simply wealth generation, profit making or increased shareholder value.
2. Companies are part of Communities In local environments, wherever they operate, Businesses and Companies are part of Communities. It they consider themselves "offshore" or Trans- national", they act irresponsibly.
3. People form the basis for Sustainable Corporate Agenda Companies perform well if they have a MARKET Focus that includes the PEOPLE as part of their Business Priorities. To make the primary Mission of Business PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE is today no longer a sustainable Corporate Agenda. Short Term Profit must not mean Long term Loss. Corporations and Businesses survive in a climate where they co-operate with communities in other areas of life.
4. Core Values Integrity, Trust, Rule of Law, Transparency and Honesty remain virtues, which corporations can and ought to adapt as CORE VALUES for long term business activities. Bribery and corruption are short term without long term gain. Support for Dictators end in a blind alley.
5. Minimise harm, maximise Business Corporate Culture Measures that provide a healthy workplace, environmental protections, safety standards, rights of employees ensure that the environmental impact of what is done is minimised. This is carried out through charitable activities, today known as corporate social philanthropy and responsibility, in areas such as medical science; diseases control and cure H IV ARV drugs provision for infected persons to mention but a few.
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6. New Technologies Businesses and Corporations must engage in Research and further products development with processes that guarantee higher value; affordability; ever better performance and greater consumer efficiency and benefits. New technologies can help societies in unimagined ways.
7. The Social Fabric Corporate citizenship involves contributions to the social fabric where a company operates through job creation, skills enhancement, knowledge transfer, education and capacity building of the host community to mention but a few. The measure of a Business is in its Corporate Social Responsibility, culture and contribution to the Social fabric. These include: Peoples promotion; Environmental protection and investments into the host community development programmes.
8. Corporate Citizenship Businesses are citizens wherever they operate with rights and duties. Corporate citizenship is freedom plus responsibility - a tall order indeed - that helps a firm or business operate in such a way that maximises benefits and minimises harm.
9. Ethics Businesses are founded on a sustainable path if they are ethical, that is rational in their options of short term benefits or long term survival with a good reputation by following and internalising the rules. Corporations need an ethical foundation to operate meaningfully, and these have to promote life, serve life, enhance life and promote solidarity, communal values, shaping of attitudes towards the respect of human rights and dignity and the observance fundamental freedoms.
10. Ability to Close Shop The rule must not be or remain, namely: If you cannot beat them join them. Rather the rule must be: If you cannot beat them, CLOSE SHOP.
Companies must have the ability and moral audacity to withdraw from environments where they are prevented from being socially responsible _ This is the really TALL ORDER for many do not and thus, they survive in the short term and collapse in the long term, having hurt humans and society and not having remained sustainable and ethical in the long term.
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Concluding remarks
Caux Round Table (CRT): Principles for Business and Positive Change
The Caux Round Table is a global network of senior business leaders who are determined to make a difference by taking action on issues affecting society. It advocates positions on economic, social and environmental issues, and serves as a catalyst for positive change.
THE CAUX ROUND TABLE: PRINCIPLES FOR BUSINESS
Introduction:
The Caux Round Table (CRT) believes that the world business community should play an important role in improving economic and social conditions. As a statement of aspirations, this document aims to express a world standard against which business behaviour can be measured. We seek to begin a process that identified shared values, reconciles differing values, and thereby develops a shared perspective on business behaviour acceptable to and honoured by all. These principles are rooted in two basic ethical ideals: Kyosei and human dignity. The Japanese concept of kyosei means living and working together for the common good, enabling cooperation and mutual prosperity to co-exist with healthy and fair competition. "Human dignity" refers to the sacredness or value of each person as an end, not simply as a means to the fulfilment of others' purposes or even majority prescription. The General principles in Section 2 seek to clarify the spirit of kyosei and "human dignity" while the specific stakeholder principles in Section 3 are concerned with their practical application. In its language and form, the document owes a substantial debt to The Minnesota Centre for Corporate Responsibility. The Centre hosted and chaired the drafting committee, which included Japanese, European, and United State representatives.
Business behaviour can affect relationship among nations and the prosperity and well-being of us all. Business is often the first contact between nations and, by the way in which it causes social and economic changes, has a significant impact on the level of fear or confidence felt by people worldwide. Members of the Caux Round Table place their first emphasis on putting one's own house in order, and on seeking to establish what is right rather than who is right. The Business of Business is Ethics 245
SECTION ONE: PREAMBLE:
The mobility of employment, capital, products and technology is making business increasingly global in its transactions and its effects. Law and market forces are necessary but insufficient guides for conduct. Responsibility for the policies and actions of business and respect for the dignity and interests of its stakeholders are fundamental. Shared values, including a commitment to shared prosperity, are as important for a global community as for communities of smaller scales.
For these reasons, and because business can be a powerful agent of positive social change, we offer the following principles as a foundation for dialogue and action by business leaders in search of business responsibility. In so doing, we affirm the necessity for moral values in business decision-making. Without them, stable business relationships and a sustainable world community are impossible.
SECTION TWO: GENERAL PRINCIPLES:
Principle One:
The Responsibilities of business: Beyond Shareholders Toward Stakeholders. The value of a business to society is the wealth and employment it creates and the marketable products and services it provides to consumers at a reasonable price commensurate with quality. To create such value, a business must maintain its own economic health and viability, but survival is not a sufficient goal. Businesses have a role to play in improving the lives of all their customers, employees, and shareholders by sharing with them the wealth they have created. Suppliers and competitors as well should expect businesses to honour their obligation in a spirit of honesty and fairness.
As responsible citizens of the local, national, regional and global communities in which they operate, businesses share a part in shaping the future of those communities.
Principle Two :
The Economic and Social Impact of Business: Toward Innovation, Justice and World Community. Businesses established in foreign
246 Values Beyond Boundaries - Essays on Ethics, Politics and Corporate Governance countries to develop, produce or sell should also contribute to the social advancement of those countries by creating productive employment and helping to raise the purchasing power of their citizens. Businesses also should contribute to human rights, education, welfare, and vitalization of the countries in which they operate. Business should contribute to economic and social development not only in the countries in which they operate, but also in the world community at large, through effective and prudent use of resources, free and fair competition, and emphasis upon innovation in technology, production methods, marketing and communications.
Principle Three :
Business Behaviour: Beyond the Letter of Law, Toward a Spirit of Trust: While accepting the legitimacy of trade secrets, businesses should recognise that sincerity, candour, truthfulness, the keeping of promises, and transparency contribute not only to their own credibility and stability but also to the smoothness and efficiency of business transactions, particularly on the international level.
Principle Four :
Respect for Rules: To avoid trade frictions and to promote freer trade, equal conditions for competition, and fair and equitable treatment for all participants, businesses should respect international and domestic rules. In addition, they should recognise that some behaviour, although legal, may still have adverse consequences.
Principle Five:
Support for Multilateral Trade: Businesses should support the multilateral trade systems of the GATT/World Trade Organisation and similar international agreements. They should cooperate in efforts to promote the progressive and judicious liberalization of trade and to relax those domestic measures that unreasonably hinder global commerce, while giving the due respect to national policy objectives.
Principle Six:
Respect for the Environment: A business should protect and, where possible, improve the environment, promote sustainable development, and The Business of Business is Ethics 247 prevent the wasteful use of natural resources.
Principle Seven:
Avoidance of Illicit Operations: A business should not participate in or condone bribery, money laundering, or other corrupt practices: indeed, it should seek cooperation with others to eliminate them. It should not trade in arms or other materials used for terrorist activities, drug traffic or other organised crime.
SECTION THREE: STAKEHOLDER PRINCIPLES:
Customers: We believe in treating all customers with dignity, irrespective of whether they purchase our products and services directly from us or otherwise acquire them in the market. We therefore have a responsibility to:
∑ Provide our customers with the highest quality products and services consistent with their requirement; ∑ Treat our customers fairly in all aspects of our business transactions, including a high level of service and remedies for their dissatisfaction; ∑ Make every effort to ensure that the health and safety of our customers, as well as the quality of their environment, will be sustained or enhanced by our products and services; ∑ Assure respect for human dignity in products offered, marketing, and advertising; and ∑ Respect the integrity of the culture of our customers. Employees: We believe in the dignity of every employee and in taking employee interests seriously. We therefore responsibility to:
∑ Provide jobs and compensation that improve workers’ living conditions; ∑ Provide working conditions that respect each employee’s health and dignity. ∑ Be honest in communications with employees and open in sharing information, limited only by legal and competitive constraints; ∑ Listen to and, where possible, act on employee suggestions, ideas, requests and complaints; ∑ Engage in good faith negotiations when conflict arises;
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∑ Avoid discriminatory practices and guarantee equal treatment and opportunity in areas Such as gender, age, race and religion; ∑ Promote in the business itself the employment of differently abled people in places of work where they can be genuinely useful; ∑ Protect employees from avoidable injury and illness in the workplace; ∑ Encourage and assist employees in developing relevant and transferable skills and knowledge; and ∑ Be sensitive to the serious unemployment problems frequently associated with business decisions and each other in addressing these dislocations. Owners/Investors: We believe in honouring the trust our investors place in us. We therefore have a responsibility to: ∑ Apply professional and diligent management in order to secure a fair and competitive return on our owners’ investment; ∑ Disclose relevant information return on Our owners/investors subject to legal requirements and competitive constraints; ∑ Converse, protect and increase the owners’/investors’ assets; and ∑ Respect owners’/investors’ requests, suggestions, complaints, and formal resolutions. Suppliers: Our relationship with Suppliers and subcontractors must be based on mutual respect. We therefore have a responsibility to: ∑ Seek fairness and truthfulness in all our activities, including pricing, licensing, and right to sell; ∑ Ensure that our business activities are free from coercion and unnecessary litigation; ∑ Foster long-term stability in the supplier relationship in return for value, quality, competitiveness and reliability; ∑ Share information with suppliers and integrate them into our planning processes; ∑ Pay suppliers on time and in accordance with agreed terms of trade; and ∑ Seek, encourage and prefer suppliers and subcontractors whose employment practices respect human dignity. Competitors: We believe that fair economic competition is one of the basic requirements for increasing the wealth of nations and ultimately for making possible the just distribution of goods and services. We therefore have a responsibility to: ∑ Foster open markets for trade and investment; The Business of Business is Ethics 249
∑ Promote competitive behaviour that is socially and environmentally beneficial and demonstrates mutual respect among competitors; ∑ Refrain from either seeking or participating in questionable payments or favours to secure competitive advantages; ∑ Respect both tangible and intellectual property rights; and ∑ Refuse to acquire commercial information by dishonest or unethical means, such as industrial espionage. Communities: We believe that as global corporate citizens we can contribute to such forces of reform and human rights as are at work in the communities in which we operate. We therefore have responsibility in those communities to: ∑ Respect human rights and democratic institutions and promote them wherever practicable; ∑ Recognize government’s legitimate obligation to the society at large and support public policies and practices that promote human development through harmonious relations between business and other segments of society; ∑ Collaborate with those forces in the community dedicated to raising standards of health, education, workplace safety and economic well being; ∑ Promote and stimulate sustainable development and play a leading role in preserving and enhancing the physical environment and conserving the earth’s resources; ∑ Support peace, security diversity and social integration; ∑ Respect the integrity of local cultures; and ∑ Be a good corporate citizen through charitable donations, educational and cultural contributions, and employee participation in community and civic affairs.
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